“There’s a lot of fuss about whether or not computer
manufacturers are taking Intel’s 64-bit Merced chip seriously.
Especially involving Hewlett-Packard, the co-developers of Intel’s
64-bit architecture… Claims have been made that the real 64-bit
chip will be McKinley, the successor to Merced.”
“The popular Windows graphics market will be constrained to 32
bits by software for some time to come. …Intel themselves are
very clear that their 32 bit processors will outperform their 64
bit processors for several years yet (in applications that don’t
explicitly require 64 bit). … With Microsoft dragging its feet
over a 64-bit version of Windows, and especially tardy over moving
the “consumer” version of Windows away from its DOS roots, there is
no immediate prospect of a mass market for IA-64.”
“…whatever Intel or HP says in public, there is no doubt that
Merced is little more than a prototype. It will be used to build
machines that developers use to test out software for IA-64. The
cooperation between HP and Intel had not properly kicked in for the
Merced development. The indications are that initially Intel failed
to fully value the contribution available from HP engineers, who
already had experience of chip design for high-end servers.
McKinley enjoyed the combined skills of both companies, and is
likely to be a far more usable processor. So for trial runs, Merced
will be useful. For serious processing, McKinley and subsequent
releases are the ones to watch.”