| Friday,
May 7, 2004 Midnight the 7th is normally
the deadline for the column, but when it falls on a Friday it is pointless
to get it on the wire before 0830 local time in Tokyo, so I have a short
reprieve.
The news here is that Microsoft has pulled the plug on NGSCB (Next
Generation Secure Computing Base) formerly known as Palladium, due to lack
of support from developers. This seems to be a surprise to most of the
industry, and certainly we heard no hint of it during the sessions at WinHEC,
where you would expect it to be announced and discussed.
http://newsletter.crn.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/egvg0FYKjW0ElQ0CWQo0A1
It wasn't a surprise to me in the sense that when they first announced
Palladium and when it transmogrified into Next Generation etc., I said they
were going to encounter a lot of resistance: it required rewriting most
apps, and the advantage to developers for doing all that much work isn't
entirely obvious. Still, this complete a cut and run at this time seems odd.
FLASH:
BUT: the story we are getting now is that CRN got large parts of this
wrong, and misconstrued the Microsoft announcement. NGSCB is not dead, but
parts of it are. That makes more sense, given the amount of investment by
Microsoft and Intel in the project. We're still looking into this one. If I
get more before I have to go to the airport it will get here.
FLASH:
CRN definitely got it wrong. We'll get you the real story shortly.
Microsoft executives are addressing the subject in the future of servers
conference even now.
From one of our associates:
"The CRN article was grossly irresponsible,
using four or five synonyms for "kill" even though the Microsoft statements
quoted in the article specifically say NGSCB was NOT killed. For example, La
Grande hardware features will still be used-- which makes it obvious enough
that the fundamentals of NGSCB will still be present, else there'd be no use
for La Grande. Some key elements of the plan are up in the air, though.
"Microsoft's follow-up statements to other outlets repudiate the CRN article
plainly enough. I look forward to CRN's follow-up.
"I'm also annoyed that none of these articles mention the whole client vs.
server timing issue. Oddly, I see articles online that take both sides on
which version of the OS will receive NGSCB first. Someone ought to get
Microsoft to clarify this matter."
Peter N. Glaskowsky
Another note, this is also what Auri of
Envisioneering heard from Jim Livingston from MS, program manager for server
hardware.
More when I learn more.
============================
Another FLASH:
Intel Abandons Tejas. Pentium 4 architecture future murky. AMD star
rising. Prescott probably NOT the way to go for new systems. More when I
know more, but "the world turned upside down" this morning.
http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3351261
And see below
=====================
This is an experiment. I am using the new pen system to Write this. The
system works but it is slow. I do not think I would care to write
a long essay this way. It does work for short notes.
We are about to board the airplane. But we were born free.
Actually, I have to say the TSA people were polite and efficient, and
went about their task with a minimum of irritation. The delays and lines
were not pleasant, but they weren't beyond endurance. Of course this is
far more than is needed for security (or far less; the point is that the
cost is high for the added security). One of Pournelle's Laws (derived
from Corlin COB Beum) is "A job not worth doing is not worth doing well."
Perhaps that's wrong in this case.
================================
Subject: Intel's Tejas processor
cancelled
As if we didn't have enough big news to discuss today,
Intel has killed off the next Pentium processor, code-named Tejas, and the
Jayhawk server version of the same chip.
This announcement is almost unbelievable. Over a
billion dollars in engineering and marketing effort is being thrown away.
In the space of just a few months, Intel has cancelled
its most important microprocessor architecture (the Pentium 4 series) and
removed life support from its second most important architecture (Itanium).
No processor vendor has ever given itself two black
eyes like this.
. png
--
Peter N. Glaskowsky Industry Analyst
Which is news indeed.
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