A PLAN TO allow Intel Itanium based systems to work better on running 32-bit software has been delayed until the second half of next year, according to reports. The IA-32 execution layer was supposed to be released for Windows Server 2003 SP1 this year, but now won"t be available until the second half of next year, a report on news.com says, citing a Microsoft representative.
The software, IA32-EL, is supposed to speed up the execution of applications on Xeon/Pentium 4 systems. Although the Itanium can do this already, it does so in a manner which could probably best be described as sluggish. The execution layer, announced earlier this year, was seen by many as a partial answer by Intel to AMD"s 64-bit processors, which will run 32-bit code natively, without emulation and without such a software layer. But while Microsoft has pushed back its plans to introduce the layer, Linux firms look like they"re pushing full steam ahead on the technology.