Intel has changed course with regard to 32bit software support on the Itanium processor, saying it now plans to help speed up the code in future versions of the chip. When Itanic first appeared the support for 32bit applications was, shall we say, minimal. Intel's 64bit behemoth had been primarily designed to run 64bit code, and x86 would soon become a distant memory.
Engineers working on the first Itanium told us that the chip could run a 32bit word processor with modest success, but that the buck stopped there. They went on to add that it would be very difficult to have 32bit applications cook on Itanium because helping such software along would require an already massive chip to grow even larger.
Times change, dies shrink, and Intel now plans to introduce something called the IA-32 Execution Layer - code-named btrans - later this year, likely when the Madison and Deerfield chips arrive.
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News source: The Reg
