Talk:Itanium

I don't understand the second paragraph. At first I thought it simply referred to the processor as Merced and I was going to change this to "the processor" becasue the name merced had not yet been mentioned. However, I am not sure if it is correct to say that the processor was originally intended as an architecture. Would it be more like the project was orinally intended as a architecture.

I know nothing about this but refering to "Merced" before the reader has been introdeced to the word is not good. Borb 11:23, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

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'it can slowly run x86 code in a firmware emulation mode' is more correct than 'it can slowly run x86 code in hardware', as far as I know. Do any experts know better?

Actually, both the Itanium and the Itanium II can run user x86 code in hardware. It uses the existing IPF (IA-64) datapaths to do this. - Steve roseundy 02:49, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

"the Itanic" -- presumably in analogy with the Titanic -- could someone confirm? -- Tarquin

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The Itanic joke has been going around for more than two years now. It's very well-known in the hardware enthusiast community. It started on a message board post by a man from New Mexico in 1999 and has picked up steam since.

Here's a copy of the post:

From: Kraig Finstad (kfinstad@unm.edu) Subject: Re: Itanium Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy View: Complete Thread (35 articles) | Original Format Date: 1999/10/04

In article <7tb3od$klj@news.or.intel.com>, "Kevin M. Taggart" <ktaggart@easytreet.com> wrote:

> >All the proc names that Intel has come up with are retarded. Itanium is, >perhaps, the worst. They should have called it "Titanic" ... > . > . > . > . > . > . > <=\\\=> >--KT

But they probably shelled out big bucks to have that first "T" removed from titanium. In this case, they'd have the Itanic.

-Kraig Finstad John

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This article is largely redundant with IA-64 - is there actually a difference anyone outside Intel marketing cares about? Should one be folded into the other? - David Gerard 11:15, Jan 25, 2004 (UTC)

Unless anyone strenuously objects (and is willing to work to differentiate the two articles effectively), I'll be merging this with IA-64 in a few days

Hmm strictly speaking, IA-64 is the instruction set, whereas Itanium is the physical processor. The IA-64 article should specalise on just the instruction set, while the Itanium article can be about everything else such as the politics, development and processor specifications. Intel may in time put the IA-64 instruction set in processors sans Itanium, like how IA-32 eventually went in things other than the original 80386/486 core. - 203.109.254.57

So you're volunteering to disambiguate? :-D - David Gerard 11:32, Apr 3, 2004 (UTC)

I've just put the detailed stuff on EPIC into IA-64 - David Gerard 09:12, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)

User:203.109.254.57 has several clear points, but I see your point as well David. However I do think a technical crowd would respect and appreciate the distinctions between ISA and implementation. Likewise a general crowd would appreciate having an article that focuses on what they care about (mostly implementation). The Itanium article could focus on implementation, market application, performance, and future roadmap. The IA-64 article can focus on the ISA, software challenges/developments, and perhaps emulation developments. I will look at working on further disambig - Vector4F 04:40, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

It is of course a marketing fiction that "Itanium" and "IA-64" are different things. But yeah, that division makes sense. The detailed stuff on EPIC should probably go in its own article, assuming there are examples beyond IA-64. And so on - David Gerard 09:26, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Well, to be pedantic about it, the official Intel name for what is termed "IA-64" here is "Itanium Processor Family" (or IPF). So IA-64 and Itanium are the same thing. I agree however, that separating implementation (Itanium, Itanium II, Madison,.. etc.) from architecture (IPF) is a good thing. - Steve roseundy 02:49, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I've just written the Itanium 2 page. I'm going to make this page talk about Merced only -- architecture stuff now all seems to be on the IA-64 page - Matthew Wilcox 09 November 2004