Intel and OEMs have driven performance and reliability of the Intel Xeon 7500 processor series (code-named Nehalem-EX) to a level overlapping what Gartner judges to be about 80% of the RISC/Itanium function/feature set, but at a much lower price point. The result will cause increased server technology consolidation toward a bipolar distribution: x86-based platforms and one primary market-share-leading RISC technology (IBM Power), complementing the prevailing legacy of mainframes.
Impact of the New Generation of x86 on the Server Market
