DMN Interview: HP 64-Bit Itanium 2 Workstations Debut
Page 3 of 3
DMN: What about pricing?
McClary: These new products can be purchased on line. They won't be available at Best Buy -- they're not targeted toward the consumer. Prices start at $4896, with a 1.3GHz single processor and 512 MB of RAM.
DMN: Let me get the big picture from you. It looks to me like 64 bit is not quite practical for everybody yet. Yet some companies like Apple and AMD are planning to make forays into the consumer market with this. What do you see two or three years down the line? Are we going to go all-64-bit? Is this going to be for everyone eventually?
McClary: I don't think so. I don't believe so. I think there are a number of places where 32 bit will continue to be -- and I don't want to say "good enough" because that makes it sound as thought there's something better out there -- where it is the best solution for that market. There are a number of markets in the technical space where our 32 bit HP personal workstations are a phenomenal solution. I believe that Itanium, and 64-bit computing will co-exist with 32-bit. Where they can take advantage of 6B of cache. 24 gigabytes of memory, where they need floating point-intensive applications. There are two users that I imagine will buy this box. One is what we call "RISC replacers." They have always been using RISC, they're the ones who need 64-bit. And then there's what I refer to as "IA32 upsizers." They are the ones who need the large memory. They have super-huge data sets or models, where they're running up against the 32 bit barrier, or the memory barrier. , for the 4 to 6 gig memory.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
DMN: HDTV content creators might be interested in that kind of bandwidth?
McClary: Most definitely. In the animation space and in the digital video space, I believe that that's going to happen. Eventually, think that more users will need that. But I don't think everyone will.
Digital Media Net Executive Producer Charlie White has been writing about new media and digital video since it was the laughingstock of the television industry. A technology journalist and columnist since 1994, White is also an Emmy-winning producer, video editor, broadcast industry consultant and shot-calling television director who has worked in broadcasting since 1974. Talk back -- Send Chazz a note at cwhite@digitalmedianet.com.Prev 1 2 3
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
