
Yes, you are a bit of a retard! Sorry, couldn't resist. AT teh time, HP had dual-core PA-RISC when SUN went dual-core, and HP had the mx2 module that allowed two Itanium CPUs to fit in one socket (not real dual-core, but it gave the same end result). So what was the difference? Here's a simple way to think of it - seven years ago I worked on V2500s with 32 CPUs in a box about half a rack in size (and that's with no internal disks!), which required dedicated wall connections to ring mains. Just a few weeks ago I worked on an rx7640 with eight CPU slots but dual-core CPUs, and I had a system that could out perfrom the old V2500 by a wide margin. Pretty soon I could take that rx7640 and upgrade it to run quad-core Tukzillas, then I will have my 32 cores (and those are real cores, not multi-thread vertical timesharing mini-RISC weenies) in a box roughly a quarter of a rack in size, powered off standard rack PDUs rather than dedicated rings, and with it's own internal disks and devices. The difference to Mr SUN? Well, the Itanium route has increased performance and has a path for future development with OS compatibility built in, all great news for consolidation, whilst the SPARC option is dying a slow and painful death with SUN pushing a disruptive and non-compatible shift to one of four chips (Xeon, Opteron, SPARC64 or Niagara), each with their own limitations, and none of which can give the performance or longterm future of the Itanium, and with a vague promise that they'll try and deliver Rock in the future.