as software solutions seem to move toward open standards, hardware platforms are moving this way as well. just one year ago, we had various CPU’s that dictate a specific OS platform. there was ultraSPARC, AMD x64, PowerPC, intel itanium 2, and intel x86 EM64T. now as industries converge, the move toward an industry standard hardware platform has begun.
sun microsystems has open solaris for the x64 platform, microsoft was windows XP x64, red hat linux runs on x64, novell SUSU linux runs on x64, and coming next year, mac OS X will run on x64. each hardware vendor can optimize the hardware by selecting various ASIC’s and components to maximize applications to make their respective OS shine. we are just eight months away from the mac OS X tiger x64 release, and data centers around the globe are preparing for the transition.