[rescue] Compaq Proliant 8000

[Nathan Raymond]

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004, Dave McGuire wrote:

> > Question for you, does AMD Opteron count as "x86"?
>
>    I think the jury is still out on that one, at least for me.  I'd lean
> toward yes, though, because people seem to be building nothing but
> ordinary shit PCs with them so far.

I am not a fan of Windows or x86, but I've been wondering if the noises
about companies dropping the legacy x86 BIOS and developing a new modern
firmware, combined with the proposed BTX form factor (improved
motherboard/case component layout for much better thermal cooling), and an
all-PCI Express architecture with an Opteron chipset, which would together
effectively eliminate the legacy cruft and shared buses, making everything
point-to-point... well, is that an x86 PC anymore?  Does having an x86
instruction set, even implimented in micro-ops, the sole determinant of
the system that I so loathe?  I don't know.  I'm not sure how I'd feel
about such a thing... but it could happen this year.

--
Nathan Raymond