Sudhian has posted a new article: "The Ramifications of Xeon 64-bit: What’s Next for Itanium and Opteron?"

Last week’s announcement that Intel would introduce 64-bit technology into the Xeon core was simultaneously fully-expected, and surprising all at the same time. Intel’s Yamhill technology (now being called ‘CT’), has long been one of the most open secrets in the CPU business. The Inquirer reported Intel was working on 64-bit extensions for the Pentium 4 architecture as far back as 2001. These instructions (codenamed Yamhill) have never been officially confirmed until recently, but their existence has been so long suspected (and unofficially confirmed) that Intel’s recent announcement that they’d actually be incorporated / activated in upcoming Xeon’s is no surprise.

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