Amidst all the flak surrounding Intel's IA-64 roadmap, let us not forget its partner, Hewlett Packard. According to reliable reports, HP is kind of keeping its PA family boiling for a while yet. We'll see a 55 SPECint95 8700 next year, a 75 SPECint95 900MHz PA 8800 the year after that, and a 115 SPECint95 1.2GHz 8900 in 2003. And, according to Shannon knows Compaq, four or five post year 2000 32-bit designs are underware, along with a brace of post McKinley 64 bit designs. Terry Shannon notes in the latest edition of his newsletter that in the IA-64 space, "the final chip layout is almost done, and that simulations 'look good.' As for availability, his source said that Intel initially anticipated Merced delivery in 1999. 'We're not going to make 1999, but we're on track for 2000... we want to be in the 64-bit market when the time is right,'" the newsletter says, quoting an Intel person. ®