Willamette set to be phased by copper

A senior IBM executive told The Register today that he disputed whether there would only be two 64-bit chips available in the next century. That followed an entry into the battle by Richard George, UK Alpha Server manager at Compaq, who said two days ago there would only be two chips left in the next century, IA-64 and DEC Alpha. Tikiri Wanduragola, Netfinity analyst at IBM Europe, said that he doubted George's analysis of the situation is true. IBM is firmly committed to the Intel IA-64 platform, but it is not merely a matter of chips, said Wanduragola. And Wanduragola said that the Power PC platform was far from dead, despite George's claims. Indeed, IBM has a number of future Power PC designs, all named after birds of the blackbird variety -- including Crows and Ravens -- never mind the original Corax crow. ®