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The Wintel platform (stack) has relied on backward compatibility for long to hold on to the userbase. So moving to Itanium just wasn't in its blood or character
by newscracker 10y ago
The Wintel platform (stack) has relied on backward compatibility for long to hold on to the userbase. So moving to Itanium just wasn't in its blood or character and wouldn't have happened easily even if AMD hadn't jumped in with x64.
The Itanium architecture and processor development was happening for a very, very long time (code name "Merced", IIRC) and didn't have much to show for due to incompatibility with x86.
- pjmlp 10y agoSure it would have been a slow process, but Windows was already available and Microsoft could have done just like Apple did. Intel would announce x86 EOL and legacy apps would be emulated or JiTted on Itanium. Their problem was that Intel wasn't the only company producing x86 chips.
- nickpsecurity 10y agoAlso happened for VMS and AS/400. Further, recall that Transmeta invented HW JIT for x86 to run it on power-efficient, non-x86 corr. Finally, Loongson is doing x86 emulation on top of MIPS multicore. So, there's plenty precedent that your scenario could've played out. Don't forget alternative, though, where Centaur/VIA could just receive a gigantic shift in business their way. Or AMD just keeps accelerating x86. Actually, AMD64 seems inevitable in this scenario.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]