Linux Beats XP to the Itanium

Following Intel's release of its new family of Itamium processors yesterday, a number of Linux distributions today made available their various flavors of Linux for the new 64-bit processor. Among them Red Hat, SuSE and Turbolinux, all beating Microsoft by over four months if the 64-bit XP rolls out as expected on October 25. By years end Intel will have a number of major UNIX and Linux distributions, as well as a special version of Windows XP for the Itamium platform.

Intel expects approximately 25 computer manufacturers to offer more than 35 Itanium-powered models this year, providing support for Hewlett Packard's HP-UX 11i v1.5 and IBM's AIX-5L, along with Linux and Windows.

Red Hat is positioning version 7.1 for the Itanium Processor towards developers that require superior performance on high-end servers and workstations. The company considers this release equally suited for porting 32-bit or RISC applications to Itanium-based systems, as well as developing new applications with mission-critical reliability.

SuSE stepped up to the plate as well; "End-users and developers will be able to take advantage of the 64-bit capabilities of Itanium-based platforms and the technical competence of SuSE with the release of SuSE's 7.2 Linux," said Victor Krutul, Linux Technology Manager, Intel Corporation. SuSE Linux 7.2 for IA64 will be available on six CDs starting June 20.

The Itanium architecture includes unique reliability features via its "Enhanced Machine Check Architecture," that Intel claims enables error detection, correction and logging, as well as Error-Correcting Code (ECC) and parity checking features.

Itanium processors will feature 2MB and 4MB of L3 cache and 733 or 800MHz frequency speeds at prices ranging from $1,177 to $4,227 USD.

For more information and to download Linux for Itanium-based systems, visit Red Hat and SuSE.com.

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