Microsoft has committed to sell an Itanium edition of its forthcoming Longhorn Server, part of a renewed marketing effort for Windows on the high-end processor that Intel and Microsoft plan to begin Monday.
The vast majority of Windows operating systems run on mainstream x86 processors such as Intel's Xeon or Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron. Because Itanium is largely incompatible and not nearly as widely used, support for it has been a lower priority for Microsoft.
That's starting to change, as Microsoft comes around to the way Intel and its chief Itanium ally, Hewlett-Packard, see the world. Like them, Microsoft wants to use Itanium to tackle the "big iron" part of the server market--massive multiprocessor machines running demanding and crucial tasks.
"Our position has not been as clear here as much as it should be," Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Windows Server Division, said in an interview. "We have a commitment to Xeon, but also very much to Itanium."
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