Move to Madison with caution, analyst warns

Recent benchmarks highlighting the raw power of the new version of the 64-bit Itanium 2 processor, known as 'Madison', don't give the whole picture, according to IT analysts Meta Group.

Madison, the third member of the Itanium chip family, debuted in June under the Itanium 2 name. Madison offers roughly 50 per cent better performance over its most recent predecessor, according to Intel.

Software designed to run on 32-bit chips, such as Intel's Xeon processors, must be rebuilt to take advantage of 64-bit features.

However, the software support for the Itanium 2 processor is still limited and IT managers have to be aware of transition and certification costs in moving to the new chip platform, according to Meta Group analyst Brian Richardson.

"Although Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server support Itanium 2, few other commercial Windows-based applications exploit 64-bit optimisations," according to Richardson.

There is also the lack of a mature and integrated Windows development environment is lacking for Itanium 2 and AMD Opteron, he added. These factors will lead to "relatively gradual 64-bit Intel server adoption", he said.

Server makers Dell and IBM have announced products built around the latest Itanium 2. HP, co-creator of the Itanium, is using it to gradually replace its own PA-RISC processor. Itanium will run not just the company's version of Unix, called HP-UX, but also Windows and Linux, according to HP.

Those looking to Hewlett-Packard's announcement of the first version of the HP-UX operating system for Itanium 2 should also be aware that not all HP-UX capabilities found on the PA-RISC chip are yet fully supported, said Richardson.

"User benefits with HP-UX on Itanium relative to PA-RISC are less clear for the next one to two years. During this time, future PA-RISC and Itanium systems will leapfrog each other in performance, until the last-generation PA-8900 is finally superseded by Montecito in 2005/06," said Richardson.

Montecito, an Itanium with two different processors in the same piece of silicon, will come out in 2005.

John Lui writes for CNET Asia. News.com's Michael Kanellos and Stephen Shankland contributed to this story.