But while Intel sharpened Itanium's arrowhead, someone moved the target. Highly distributed processing on the one hand, and bandwidth-intensive data delivery on the other, may now offer the greatest opportunities for delivering performance that users will notice and value. Another aspect of distributed processing is in the spreading of transaction workloads across many servers at an e-business site. A matter of freight Media processing chokes, not on operations, but on throughput. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that applications have to be written before anyone can use a chip of any kind, and the wholly new architecture of the Itanium will create a high hurdle for developers and toolmakers hoping to unleash its potential.
Fast chips are like fast cars.
If you want to deliver 100 dishwashers from point A to point B, an 18-wheeler outpaces a Ferrari. Consider your own freight manifest before you accept any chip maker's claims for processor speed. Share your processor road map in the TalkBack below. The man was a Web pioneer, a teacher and a futurist. And best of all, he will be remembered as a decent human being, says Charles Cooper .