Intel hosts Itanium PlugFest
About 100 hardware and software developers will be running around an Oregon hotel this week checking to make sure that all the products they are developing for Intel's Itanium chip work together.
The Itanium PlugFest, which kicks off tomorrow, is aimed at making sure that when Intel debuts its 64-bit processor later this year all the components can work together.
Representatives from computer makers such as Hewlett-Packard, Compaq Computer and Dell Computer along with market leaders from Microsoft to EMC will be literally taking their products door-to-door through the Embassy Suites Hotel in Tigard, Ore. The companies will make sure all the disk drives can work with the different servers and workstations that in turn can run a variety of operating systems from Windows to Linux.
The PlugFest is the latest in Intel's long marketing and developing push for the new chip, which the Santa Clara, Calif.-based giant hopes will allow it to rival Sun Microsystems and others in the market for the high-end servers that power the Internet. Intel plans a second, similar event in September for smaller firms and those in other areas such as communications and networking.
The Itanium chip is scheduled to be released in the third quarter of 2000, with server and workstations being released in the months following the chip's release. Intel said it has already shipped 4,000 prototype Itanium servers and workstations to developers.
Last month, Intel detailed the chip's microarchitecture on its Web site.