Eight Leading System Vendors Show Prototype Itanium™ Processor-Based Solutions At Intel Developer Forum

Industry Poised to Deliver High-End Solutions in Second Half of this Year

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Feb. 14, 2000 -- Eight leading system vendors today showed prototype servers and workstations based on Intel Corporation's forthcoming Itanium™ processor at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF). Running three different operating systems and featuring several e-Business-related applications, these systems offer a preview of the extensive hardware and software offerings that will be available as Itanium processor-based systems begin shipping in the second half of 2000.

Companies participating in the IA-64 demo showcase at IDF are Bull, Compaq Computer, Dell Computer, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, NEC Corporation and SGI. These prototype server and workstation systems feature a representative sample of innovative applications that address the demands of the rapidly evolving e-Business environment, including increased security requirements, faster response time, customization and high service availability.

"The industry is working to ensure that Itanium processor-based solutions drive the foundation of the next generation of e-Business," said Mike Fister, vice president and general manager, Intel's Enterprise Server Group. "As the needs of e-Business grow, so do the requirements for a flexible and scalable platform. This preview of systems and solutions is a clear indication of Intel's work with the industry to provide a broad range of choices for the Itanium processor-based platform, expanding and complementing the wide array of today's Pentium® III Xeon™ processor system solutions."

The Itanium processor will provide the capabilities required by high-end servers and workstations. Server applications such as business intelligence, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management will benefit from the Itanium processor's features, delivering enhanced reliability, leading security performance, better application performance and increased number of users supported on a system. The Itanium processor's floating point performance, 64-bit addressability, large cache memory and high bandwidth bus are well-suited for the high-performance workstations used in mechanical design automation, digital content creation, financial modeling and scientific and technical computing applications.

Intel also disclosed new tools and developer information including the IA-64 Software Developer's Manual, a comprehensive guide to Intel's IA-64 architecture. This document provides information on the complete programming environment, including application and system level architecture, IA-64 instruction set, optimization techniques and other critical information to aid programmers in the development of application software for the Itanium processor.

IA-64 Program Update
A number of developments in recent months show ongoing industry momentum for the Itanium processor:

• Intel is ramping delivery into the thousands of prototype servers and workstations based on the Itanium processor to key equipment manufacturers, operating system vendors and application developers to enable development of complete solutions.
• Hundreds of companies are focusing their efforts on developing IA-64 technologies and products as the industry prepares for delivery of Itanium processor-based system solutions beginning in the second half of 2000.
• Since last spring, the Intel 64 Fund has made about 20 minority equity investments in companies optimizing solutions for the IA-64 architecture. These solutions run on a variety of operating environments -- including Microsoft's 64-bit Windows, 64-bit Linux and IBM's Monterey64 -- and encompass a broad range of e-Business and enterprise application areas. These include open-source application server software, workstation-based visual query and analysis software, portal/organizational solutions for e-Business, CORBA based middleware solutions and tools that translate legacy Cobol code to Java and other languages. Investment activity for the fund is expected to continue to accelerate over the next year.
• Intel continues to work with all major operating system vendors such as Microsoft (64-bit Windows), IBM (Monterey64), HP (HP-UX), 64-bit Linux, and Novell (Modesto) to port and tune their operating system software for the Itanium processor.
• Earlier this month, the Trillian Project released the Linux source code for the Itanium processor, enabling the broad developer community to participate in development of the Linux kernel and applications for IA-64.

The Itanium processor will be in production in the middle of this year and ship with two and four megabytes of L3 cache, a type of memory that is critical to system performance. Production clock frequencies are targeting 800 MHz.

About IDF
The Intel Developer Forum is Intel's premier technical forum comprising nearly 150 sessions and hands-on labs and more than 100 demonstrations of cutting-edge products and technologies. IDF attracts over 2,000 hardware and software developers from around the world, of whom nearly 30 percent are focused on software. Now in its third year, the semi-annual conference provides hardware OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), IHVs (independent hardware vendors), and ISVs (independent software vendors) with in-depth information on Intel technologies and initiatives. More information on the Intel Developer Forum can be found at http://developer.intel.com/idf. Updated information is available between Intel Developer Forums by subscribing to the Intel Developer Update Magazine at http://developer.intel.com/update/.

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