Editing IA-64 (section)

=== Marketing ===

Intel's product marketing and industry engagement efforts were substantial and achieved design wins with the majority of enterprise server OEMs, including those based on RISC processors at the time. Industry analysts predicted that IA-64 would dominate in servers, workstations, and high-end desktops, and eventually supplant both RISC and CISC architectures for all general-purpose applications.<ref name="anand">{{cite web | url = https://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2598 | title = Itanium–Is there light at the end of the tunnel? | access-date = 2007-03-23 | last = De Gelas | first = Johan | date = 2005-11-09 | work = [[AnandTech]] | archive-date = 2012-05-03 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120503094946/http://www.anandtech.com/show/1854 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="Venturebeat">{{cite web | url = https://venturebeat.com/2009/05/08/exit-interview-retiring-intel-chairman-craig-barrett-on-the-industrys-unfinished-business/ | title = Exit interview: Retiring Intel chairman Craig Barrett on the industry's unfinished business | access-date = 2009-05-17 | last = Takahashi | first = Dean | date = 2009-05-08 | work = VentureBeat | archive-date = 2018-04-21 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180421095016/https://venturebeat.com/2009/05/08/exit-interview-retiring-intel-chairman-craig-barrett-on-the-industrys-unfinished-business/ | url-status = live }}</ref> [[Compaq]] and [[Silicon Graphics]] decided to abandon further development of the [[DEC Alpha|Alpha]] and [[MIPS architecture|MIPS]] architectures respectively in favor of migrating to IA-64.<ref name="cautionary">{{cite web | url = https://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584-5984747.html | title = Itanium: A cautionary tale | access-date = 2007-11-01 | date = 2005-12-07 | work = Tech News on ZDNet | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080209211056/http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584-5984747.html | archive-date = 2008-02-09}}</ref>

By 1997, it was apparent that the IA-64 architecture and the compiler were much more difficult to implement than originally thought, and the delivery of Itanium began slipping.<ref name="geek1">{{cite web | url = https://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-228204.html | title = Intel's Merced chip may slip further | last = Shankland | first = Stephen | access-date = 2008-10-16 | date = 1999-07-08 | work = CNET News | archive-date = 2012-10-24 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121024072154/http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-228204.html | url-status = live }}</ref> Since Itanium was the first ever EPIC processor, the development effort encountered more unanticipated problems than the team was accustomed to. In addition, the EPIC concept depended on compiler capabilities that had never been implemented before, so more research was needed.<ref name="Research">{{cite web | url = https://cs.nyu.edu/courses/spring02/V22.0480-002/vliw.pdf | title = Microprocessors&nbsp;— VLIW, The Past | access-date = 2018-06-26 | date = 2002-04-18 | work = NY University | archive-date = 2018-06-27 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180627202317/https://cs.nyu.edu/courses/spring02/V22.0480-002/vliw.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref>

Several groups developed operating systems for the architecture, including [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Unix]] and [[Unix-like]] systems such as [[Linux]], [[HP-UX]], [[FreeBSD]], [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]],<ref name="Solaris-Merced1">{{cite web | url = https://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9909013sunsol | title = Solaris for IA-64 coming this fall | last = Vijayan | first = Jaikumar | date = 1999-09-01 | website = [[Computerworld]] | archive-date = 2000-01-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000115084746/http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9909013sunsol | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref name="Solaris-Merced2">{{cite web | url = http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1139835 | title = Core-logic efforts under way for Merced | last = Wolfe | first = Alexander | access-date = February 27, 2016 | date = 1999-09-02 | work = EE Times | archive-date = 2016-03-06 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160306151803/http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1139835 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="Solaris-Merced3">{{cite web | url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1998_March_10/ai_20369933 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040920130611/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1998_March_10/ai_20369933 | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2004-09-20 | title = Sun Introduces Solaris Developer Kit for Intel to Speed Development of Applications On Solaris; Award-winning Sun Tools Help ISVs Easily Develop for Solaris on Intel Today | access-date = 2008-10-16 | date = 1998-03-10 | work = Business Wire}}</ref> [[Tru64 UNIX]],<ref name="cautionary" /> and [[Monterey/64]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.news.com/2100-1001-229335.html | title = Next-generation chip passes key milestone | access-date = 2007-11-01 | date = 1999-09-17 | work = CNET News.com | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110809204935/http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-229335.html | archive-date = 2011-08-09 }}</ref> (the last three were canceled before reaching the market). In 1999, Intel led the formation of an open-source industry consortium to port Linux to IA-64 they named "Trillium" (and later renamed "Trillian" due to a trademark issue), which was led by Intel and included [[Caldera Systems]], [[CERN]], [[Cygnus Solutions]], Hewlett-Packard, IBM, [[Red Hat]], [[Silicon Graphics|SGI]], [[SUSE S.A.|SuSE]], [[TurboLinux]] and [[VA Linux Systems]]. As a result, a working IA-64 Linux was delivered ahead of schedule and was the first OS to run on the new Itanium processors.

Intel announced the official name of the processor, ''Itanium'', on October 4, 1999.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.cnet.com/news/intel-names-merced-chip-itanium/ | title = Intel names Merced chip Itanium | access-date = 2007-04-30 | last = Kanellos | first = Michael | date = 1999-10-04 | work = [[CNET]] News.com | archive-date = 2015-12-30 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151230133330/http://www.cnet.com/news/intel-names-merced-chip-itanium/ | url-status = live }}</ref> Within hours, the name ''Itanic'' had been coined on a [[Usenet]] newsgroup as a [[pun]] on the name [[RMS Titanic|''Titanic'']], the "unsinkable" [[ocean liner]] that sank on its maiden voyage in 1912.<ref>{{cite newsgroup | url = https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.mac.advocacy/UiOOaXF3-lI/f3nje9CHPx0J | title = Re:Itanium | access-date = 2013-12-19 | last = Finstad | first = Kraig | date = 1999-10-04 | newsgroup= comp.sys.mac.advocacy}}</ref>

The very next day on 5th October 1999, AMD announced their plans to extend Intel's x86 instruction set to include a fully downward compatible 64-bit mode, additionally revealing AMD's newly coming x86 64-bit architecture, which the company had already worked on, to be incorporated into AMD's upcoming eighth-generation microprocessor, code-named [[Opteron|''SledgeHammer'']].<ref name="AMD64-announcement">{{cite press release | title = AMD Discloses New Technologies At Microporcessor Forum | publisher = AMD | date = October 5, 1999 | url = https://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/Press_Release_751.aspx | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120308030806/http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/Press_Release_751.aspx | archive-date = March 8, 2012 | access-date= August 15, 2022 }}</ref> AMD also signaled a full disclosure of the architecture's specifications and further details to be available in August 2000.<ref name="AMD-spec-x86-64">{{cite press release | title = AMD Releases x86-64 Architectural Specification; Enables Market Driven Migration to 64-Bit Computing | publisher = AMD | date = August 10, 2000 | url = https://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/Press_Release_715.aspx | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120308025559/http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/Press_Release_715.aspx | archive-date = March 8, 2012 | access-date= August 15, 2022 }}</ref>

As AMD was never invited to be a contributing party for the IA-64 architecture and any kind of licensing seemed unlikely, AMD's [[AMD64]] architecture-extension was positioned from the beginning as an evolutionary way to add [[64-bit computing]] capabilities to the existing x86 architecture, while still supporting legacy 32-bit x86 [[machine code|code]], as opposed to Intel's approach of creating an entirely new, completely x86-incompatible 64-bit architecture with IA-64.