The IA-64 Architecture

Intel Starts Anew

Since the introduction of the 8-bit 8088 processor, the instruction sets of all of Intel's processors have been built upon their immediate predecessors. Big changes occurred with the 32-bit 386 with new multitasking abilities, and with the MMX and SSE multimedia extensions. Unfortunately, Intel's dedication to the original instructions as well as a self-enforced requirement for backwards compatibility have severely hampered its most recent chips. Intel has been forced to add great amounts of complexity to its chips to allow them to add RISC-like features such as pipelining and branch-prediction (for an overview of these features, as well as an intro to modern microprocessors, see our article on the Motorola G4.

Apple faced the same restrictions with the 68000 series of processors that powered the original Macintoshes; they started fresh with the completely new PowerPC chips that ran old applications in emulation. Now, thousands of processors later, and facing quantum restrictions that are slowing their ability to increase transistor count and MHZ, Intel is following suit and scrapping their old architecture (known as IA-32) for a completely new paradigm.

Itani-what?

Most computer enthusiasts are familiar with this new system as the Merced processor. Just last week Intel replaced this codename (all Intel processors are code-named after rivers in California and Oregon) with the professionally chosen Itanium. It seems that Intel is trying to capitalize on the fact that the word Pentium and most metallic elements end with -ium by making a processor that sounds like Titanium. I honestly don't like the name, especially since the nerd quotient of titanium bottomed out when it went from being the skin of the SR-71 to the head on a Big Bertha driver. Of course, the "I" factor can't hurt their "This way in" Internet campaign either.

The Merced is just the first processor that implements the IA-64 architecture. Since the details of the Merced's actual implementation are not yet available, in this article I will discuss what's revolutionary about IA-64 and how it will affect end-users at all levels.

Where can I buy it?

You can't. The Merced is almost two years behind schedule, and it currently looks like the first systems will hit store shelves halfway through the year 2000. Of course, you'll need an OS for these chips. Intel has demonstrated four operating systems running on engineering samples of the Merced (or Itanium if you insist) including Linux and Windows 2000. Since the Merced will be aimed at the server market, don't expect the first systems to be affordable to a mere human.