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First generations of Itanium used same bus and support chips as last HP-PA, thus way simpler migration path involved - some servers even allowed to swap HP-PA f
by p_l 1y ago
First generations of Itanium used same bus and support chips as last HP-PA, thus way simpler migration path involved - some servers even allowed to swap HP-PA for Itanium without replacing most of the server (similar as with rare VAX 7000 and VAX 10000, which could have CPU boards replaced with Alpha ones)
- kjs3 1y agoYes, that was an interesting option, though not nearly as cheap on a lifecycle basis as one might hope. I don't know of anyone who upgraded this way, but obviously someone did. My clients who converted ran the HP-PA machines, brought in Itaniums, migrated and retired the HP-PA when they were amortized (or kept running code that didn't get the merced treatment).
- p_l 1y agoI think HPPA->Itanium replacement without replacing the entire server was limited to Superdomes. But it made it cheaper for HP to produce Itanium servers, though I bet they didn't pass those savings...