OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical > Hardware
The last nail in OS/2's coffin
ivan:
This sounds very much like desperation on the part of Intel, they are seeing AMD taking over the desktop processor market with far better processors so they need something, anything, to get in front again.
Lars:
If you want to delve into the details:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/technical/envisioning-future-simplified-architecture.html
Currently, this is only a proposal. But it gives a very good idea of what Intel thinks is no longer needed.
Neil Waldhauer:
Intel proposed Itanium 64 bit in 1989. It takes some time for these plans to come about. Even articles about the new 64 bit architecture from Intel mention cores that still provide X86 mixed with 64-bit only cores.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itanium
Even if nothing happens for a while, it's worth thinking about how OS/2 runs on CPU features that matter very little to the CPU market.
The other thing that threatens OS/2 is the aging of its users. I predict that will be the actual cause of death.
Eugene Tucker:
Good point Neil couple that with a limited kernal and vanishing developers.
Lars:
--- Quote from: Neil Waldhauer on January 22, 2024, 03:33:16 pm ---Intel proposed Itanium 64 bit in 1989. It takes some time for these plans to come about. Even articles about the new 64 bit architecture from Intel mention cores that still provide X86 mixed with 64-bit only cores.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itanium
Even if nothing happens for a while, it's worth thinking about how OS/2 runs on CPU features that matter very little to the CPU market.
The other thing that threatens OS/2 is the aging of its users. I predict that will be the actual cause of death.
--- End quote ---
With Itanium 64 bit, while moving to 64-bit, Intel wanted to push through a completely new CPU architecture with a completely different instruction set. That failed because nobody wanted to immediately rebuy all their software.
But with x86-S, Intel wants to make room on their die, kicking out all the stuff nobody needs any more (freeing space for valuable things like for example an increased cache size) and also, because the twisted x86 architecture seems to introduce more security issues then would be necessary because the x86 architecture has become too complex.
That is a completely different motivation. It is in Intel's best interest to push this through as fast as possible. And it has become fairly easy because all major OSes and their applications are 64-bit already and also already fullfil all prerequisites to make them run on x86-S.
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