[X4U] Intel Duo 32-64 bit?

[Kelly Harding]

B. Kuestner wrote:
>> Also, if I recall correctly, Intel’s current 64bit chip is based on  
>> the old Pentium architecture, but they’ll have a 64bit version of  the 
>> low power chip this summer for the Power Mac.
> 
> 
> Yes if by 64-bit you mean the extension to the old x64 ISA. Intel  
> fledged that onto the Pentium IV, whereas the Core chips are  successors 
> to the Pentium M.
> 
> But Intel has their own non-x86 64-bit architecture which has failed  to 
> gain much success so far. But the Itanium II looks much better  than the 
> first release and the compilers seem to be getting into gear  as well.

Itanium isn't x86. It has to emulate/decode x86 instructions.

Intel and HP created a new platform basically with the Itanium and 
dumped x86 from the equation.

Due to the emulation, etc x86 software performs poorly on it I suspect, 
probably why it has failed to take off.

AMD64 (ie Opteron) and Intel's own 64bit Xeon CPUs have seen more 
success than Itanium really.

Kelly