Looking at so many architectures that failed over time, I do think this strongly correlates with not having a critical mass of users/developers. Sparc, PowerPC

Looking at so many architectures that failed over time, I do think this strongly correlates with not having a critical mass of users/developers. Sparc, PowerPC could have had a much better and longer life, if there had been affordable motherboards in a common form factor available for enthusiasts. That is especially important, if your CPU architecture is vastly different from the mainstream. So if Intel had made reasonably priced Itaniums available for the Linux crowd, software support could have increased considerably. I think a lot of scientists would have loved Itanium systems for their great float pointing performance. But the times, where scientists get equipped with expensive work stations, ended somwhere in the mid-90ies. Likewise, I hope that this new CPU becomes easily available to enthusiasts and think that its viability even would depend on it.