Does Microsoft drop Itanium support?

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No way.

Articles like this are misleading. Microsoft will continue to support Itanium with a variety of Windows Server Platforms. Today and in the foreseeable future workstation platforms based on either Intel EM64T or AMD Opteron and Athlon64 make more sense for multiple reasons.

 

Windows on x64 (Intel EM64T and AMD 64-bit processors) systems deliver great flexibility and choice and offer a smooth migration from 32-bit to 64-bit applications in supporting a seamless execution of 32-bit (at native speed) and 64-bit applications. The Itanium platform is just more suitable for the high-end server market. And Microsoft will continue to support Itanium!

 

Mainstream server and workstation markets can be better addresses with Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition, and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition respectively.