Clearer picture emerges of HP-Intel 21st century MPU

Electronic News, April 28, 1997 by Cindi R. Maciolek

HP disclosed its strategic direction at a recent media event at its corporate headquarters here. Specific product details will be available over the next 12-15 months, HP said, beginning in May, as the company rolls out what it is calling its Pervasive Solutions Foundation (PSF).

PSF is a follow-up to last December's Extended Enterprise initiative--defining a platform to take advantage of the Internet in a secure manner. New systems will run both Unix and Windows NT operating systems, based on PA-RISC and the planned IA-64 (Intel Architecture, 64-bit) devices being co-developed with Intel. With up to 256-way SMP (symmetric multi-processing), designers will be able to simulate an aircraft or car in its entirety, not just portions of the design, on next-generation workstation systems.

HP expects the systems to run 5-15x faster than current units, while maintaining binary compatibility with IA-32 and existing PA-RISC systems. "This combination offers users a seamless choice," said Richard Sevcik, VP of HP's Systems Technology group. "Customers can move forward when they're ready, at the same time protecting their investment."

The PSF umbrella ranges from mainframes to servers and PCs. Initial product developments include advanced PA-RISC-based systems, with a six-way SMP and a PA-8200 microprocessor, running 50 percent faster than today's systems. The high-end system in the PA-RISC architecture will have the capability of running 2,048 processors in parallel, with a bus bandwidth of 15 gigabytes per second. In the IA-32 architecture, HP will run MMX technology up to an eight-way SMP system.

Sometime shortly after the turn of the century, HP said, it plans to deliver a system capable of handling up to 4,096 parallel processors. This will be based on the new IA-64 architecture, leveraging Convex Computer's Crossbar Technology. HP expects performance numbers in the area of 100 gigabytes per second backplane, 10x today's numbers.

"Our biggest advantage for the PSF will be the large number of applications readily available for these systems," said Mr. Sevcik. "In addition to the 15,000 HP applications, users will have access to 35,000 NT applications. And, as everyone knows, it takes applications to run a business."

HP's Colliance Program will add middleware to software and applications. It will integrate technologies for both Unix and NT, offering a set of common software from PCs to servers. Another upcoming announcement will be a set of tools and compilers for application developers. The initial release will include tools for C, C++ and Java. Future releases will add Fortran and Cobol.

Dick Watts, VP and GM of HP's Computer Systems organization, stated that "HP is laying the foundation for the next generation of the industry as a whole." While HP wants to project the image of having the future sewn up for the market, Sun Microsystems still feels there's a lot of healthy competition on the horizon.

According to Peter von Clemm, Sun product line manager for microprocessors, "Our UltraSparc systems run Solaris, which is the number one Unix in use, and we expect that to continue into the future. The UltraSparc family (UltraSparc 2, 3, 4 and 5) is all binary-compatible. All the code for operating system and applications runs on each new generation, and it runs faster than the previous system generation.

"IA-64 is a new architecture, but we believe there will be some translation required, which will slow down code from previous generations. Our UltraSparc systems will be performance-compatible with the IA-64," Mr. von Clemm added.