Looks like it is official - WindowsXP for Itanium goes away
http://news.com.com/Itanium--one+step+forward%2C+one+back/2100-1006_3-5513805.html?tag=nefd.top
Hewlett-Packard is due to bring the fastest Itanium 2 processor so far to its higher-end server models on Jan. 18, sources familiar with the products said. But at the same time, Microsoft has scrapped its version of Windows for workstations using the high-end chip.
Microsoft will continue to sell Itanium versions of Windows for servers, a representative said, but for the powerful desktop computers known as workstations, the company is concentrating its energies on its "x64" operating system--the one that takes advantage of 64-bit memory extensions in Intel's Xeon and Pentium and in Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron and Athlon processors. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is due to ship in the first half of the year.
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From a technology standpoint, I was always interested in IA64 and Windows running on IA64. However, the fact that the product was not compatible with the existing 32 bit base without an emulation layer, which resulted in poor performance and the fact that the IA64 family was so expensive compared to the existing hardware, I never saw why people would go to it. This thing about IA64 and 32 bit Xeon systems reaching price parity is too little, too late. Intel needed to bring the IA64 family into price parity with 32 bit P4 systems and should have done it last year. 2007 is too late. The key is to be compatible and be price competitive with the majority of systems out in the marketplace so that there is no reason for someone with purchasing power not to switch. Instead the compatibility and pricing were major roadblocks. Hmm, I really wonder if Itanium and IA64 will be around in the next few years.
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