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Intel’s emulator to boost 32-bit apps on Itanium

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CIOL Bureau
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SAN FRANCISCO: Intel Corp. is developing new emulation software designed to speed the way its Itanium processor runs certain applications on server computers, an Intel spokeswoman said.



Intel has spent heavily to develop the Itanium chip in order to meet the needs of faster and more powerful software. The microchip allows servers to run both 32-bit applications, which crunch 32 bits of data at a time and comprise most of the software in use today, and newer 64-bit applications, which are faster because they process more bits of data at a time.



However, industry analysts say 32-bit applications don"t perform as well on the Itanium chip as they do on 32-bit processors like Intel"s Pentium and Xeon.



Intel is working with Microsoft Corp. and Linux developers to include a software emulator, called IA-32 Execution Layer, in their operating system software, said Intel spokeswoman Barbara Grimes.



The emulator works by taking the 32-bit application code and converting it into native 64-bit code that the Itanium processor can run, she explained.



"It boosts the performance of Itanium running 32-bit applications and it allows us to incorporate support for new 32-bit instructions faster," Grimes said.



Intel expects the software to boost the performance of 32-bit code running on Itanium to roughly equivalent to that of a 1.5 gigahertz Xeon processor, she said.



The software will be rolling out in products beginning in the second half of this year, according to Grimes.



The news comes two days after rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. unveiled its new microprocessor, Opteron, for servers that run both 64-bit and 32-bit software fast.



The Opteron servers are much less expensive than Itanium machines and at the time of the Opteron announcement, analysts wondered how Intel would solve the 32-bit performance issue with Itanium.



One analyst praised Intel"s software emulation plan. "This certainly does blunt AMD"s argument that if you need to do both 32-bit and 64-bit, Opteron is the only answer," said Nathan Brookwood of Insight 64. "It makes the transition to Itanium easier, and that can"t hurt".

© Reuters

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