Industry Leaders Release Interoperability Guide (DIG64) for Merced and the IA-64 Platform

DIG64 Promoters Compaq, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, NEC and Siemens Define Hardware-Software Compatibility To Enable Broad Solutions for IA-64

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Aug. 31, 1999 - The seven promoters of the Developer's Interface Guide for IA-64 Servers (DIG64) today published an interoperability guideline based on a standard set of system building blocks and software interfaces for servers built on Intel Corporation's Merced processor, the first processor for the IA-64 computing platform architecture. The document is focused on reducing engineering efforts -- and thus time to market -- for delivering highly reliable Merced-based servers in the second half of next year. DIG64 specifies requirements for baseline platform and operating system designs that would enable innovation to occur at the system level without sacrificing reliability and interoperability on the platform level.

"By mandating the use of abstraction layers, like the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), the DIG64 enables the industry to make large strides in furthering reliability and future innovation in IA-64 based products that could otherwise take years to evolve." said James Gruener of Aberdeen Group. "The DIG64 is necessary for the rapid evolution of reliable IA-64 customer products."

The DIG64 guidelines cover the core system building blocks (processor, memory, chipset, I/O bus, and system management) and their interfaces to peripheral devices for communication, networking, and storage, as well as low-level firmware interfaces for system configuration, boot, and run-time services. Key elements in this release of the DIG64 establish a foundation of requirements and recommendations to utilize the 64-bit address space, manage resources dynamically, and enable scalability in order to promote reliability and future innovation in IA-64 servers and workstations. In each of these areas the guidelines specify the common support of select industry standards and specify implementation requirements for those standards. DIG64 specifies support of, and by, 64-bit operating systems while making support for IA-32 operating systems in IA-64 systems optional for system vendors. This first release of the DIG64 is oriented toward Merced-based platforms and is available at the DIG64 Web site, http://dig64.org. Subsequent releases will focus on future generations of IA-64 based products.

Industry leaders in the design of systems, operating systems, firmware, storage, and networking devices have contributed to the development of the DIG64 guidelines. Current contributors include Adaptec, American Megatrends, Bull, Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Interphase, LSI Logic, Mylex, NEC, Novell, Oracle, QLogic, Phoenix Technologies, Siemens, SCO, Sequent Computer Systems, and Sun Microsystems. Products based on the DIG64 guidelines, such as systems, operating systems, and peripheral devices are expected to come to market in the second half of 2000. The guide has been published on the Web at http://dig64.org today and is now publicly available. Membership information for the DIG64 is also available at the Web site. The group plans to update the guideline, and publish new guidelines, as future IA-64 processors reach the market in the next few years.

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