Editing Itanium (section)

== Market reception ==

=== High-end server market ===
[[File:HP-HP9000-ZX6000-Itanium2-SystemBoard-A7231-66510 42.jpg|thumb|380px|[[Hewlett-Packard|HP]] zx6000 [[system board]] with dual Itanium&nbsp;2 processors]]
[[Image:Itanium2.png|thumb|380px|Itanium 2 in 2003]]

When first released in 2001, Itanium's performance was disappointing compared to better-established [[RISC]] and [[Complex instruction set computing|CISC]] processors.<ref name="anand"/><ref name="Venturebeat"/> Emulation to run existing x86 applications and operating systems was particularly poor, with one benchmark in 2001 reporting that it was equivalent at best to a 100&nbsp;[[Hertz|MHz]] Pentium in this mode (1.1&nbsp;[[Hertz|GHz]] Pentiums were on the market at that time).<ref>{{cite news
 | url=https://www.theregister.com/2001/01/23/benchmarks_itanic_32bit_emulation/
 | title=Benchmarks&nbsp;– Itanic 32bit emulation is 'unusable'. No kidding&nbsp;— slower than a P100
 | first=Andrew
 | last=Orlowski
 | work=[[The Register]]
 | date=January 23, 2001
 | access-date=November 25, 2022
 }}</ref>
Itanium failed to make significant inroads against [[IA-32]] or RISC, and suffered further following the arrival of [[x86-64]] systems which offered greater compatibility with older x86 applications.

In a 2009 article on the history of the processor — "How the Itanium Killed the Computer Industry" — journalist [[John C. Dvorak]] reported "This continues to be one of the great fiascos of the last 50 years".<ref>{{cite web
 | url=https://www.pcmag.com/article.aspx/curl/2339629
 | title=How the Itanium Killed the Computer Industry
 | access-date=April 15, 2012
 | last=Dvorak
 | first=John C.
 | author-link=John C. Dvorak
 | date=January 26, 2009
 | work=[[PC Mag]]
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120608105627/http://www.pcmag.com/article.aspx/curl/2339629
 | archive-date=June 8, 2012
 | url-status=dead
 }}</ref> Tech columnist [[Ashlee Vance]] commented that the delays and underperformance "turned the product into a joke in the chip industry<!--direct quote. do not modify-->".<ref name="vance late">{{Cite news
 |url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/ten-years-after-first-delay-intels-itanium-is-still-late/
 |title=Ten Years After First Delay, Intel's Itanium Is Still Late
 |work=[[The New York Times]]
 |date=February 9, 2009
 |access-date=April 1, 2010
 |last=Vance
 |first=Ashlee
 |author-link=Ashlee Vance
 |archive-date=July 10, 2011
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710101259/http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/ten-years-after-first-delay-intels-itanium-is-still-late/
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> In an interview, [[Donald Knuth]] said "The Itanium approach...was supposed to be so terrific—until it turned out that the wished-for compilers were basically impossible to write."<ref>{{cite web
 | last=Knuth
 | first=Donald E.
 | url=http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1193856
 | title=Interview with Donald Knuth
 | publisher=InformIT
 | date=April 25, 2008
 | access-date=April 1, 2010
 | archive-date=February 23, 2021
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210223015337/https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1193856
 | url-status=live
 }}</ref>

Both [[Red Hat]] and [[Microsoft]] announced plans to drop Itanium support in their operating systems due to lack of market interest;<ref name="last_ms">{{cite web|url=https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/windowsserver/2010/04/02/windows-server-2008-r2-to-phase-out-itanium/|title=Windows Server 2008 R2 to Phase Out Itanium|last=Reger|first=Dan|date=April 2, 2010|work=Windows Server Blog|access-date=July 29, 2018|archive-date=June 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613111922/https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/windowsserver/2010/04/02/windows-server-2008-r2-to-phase-out-itanium/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="last_rhel">{{cite news|url=https://www.theregister.com/2009/12/18/redhat_rhel6_itanium_dead/|title=Red Hat pulls plug on Itanium with RHEL 6|first=Timothy Prickett|last=Morgan|date=December 18, 2009|work=[[The Register]]|access-date=November 25, 2022}}</ref> however, other [[Linux distribution]]s such as [[Gentoo Linux|Gentoo]] and [[Debian]] remain available for Itanium. On March 22, 2011, [[Oracle Corporation]] announced that it would no longer develop new products for HP-UX on Itanium, although it would continue to provide support for existing products.<ref name="pcworld2011">{{cite web |last=Nystedt |first=Dan |date=March 22, 2011 |title=Oracle stops developing software for Intel's Itanium Chips |url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/495910/article-2090.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230101153/https://www.pcworld.com/article/495910/article-2090.html |archive-date=December 30, 2021 |access-date=December 30, 2021 |website=[[PC World]]}}</ref> Following this announcement, HP sued Oracle for breach of contract, arguing that Oracle had violated conditions imposed during settlement over Oracle's hiring of former HP CEO [[Mark Hurd]] as its co-CEO, requiring the vendor to support Itanium on its software "until such time as HP discontinues the sales of its Itanium-based servers",<ref name="ars-oraclelawsuitwin">{{cite web|title=HP wins judgment in Itanium suit against Oracle|url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/08/hp-wins-judgement-in-itanium-suit-against-oracle/|website=Ars Technica|date=August 2012|access-date=July 1, 2016|archive-date=November 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112030259/https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/08/hp-wins-judgement-in-itanium-suit-against-oracle/|url-status=live}}</ref> and that the breach had harmed its business. In 2012, a court ruled in favor of HP, and ordered Oracle to resume its support for Itanium. In June 2016, [[Hewlett Packard Enterprise]] (the corporate successor to HP's server business) was awarded $3 billion in damages from the lawsuit.<ref name="ars-itaniumlawsuit">{{cite web|title=HP awarded $3B in damages from Oracle over Itanium database cancelation|url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/hp-awarded-3b-in-damages-from-oracle-over-itanium-database-cancellation/|website=Ars Technica|date=July 2016|access-date=July 1, 2016|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108090154/https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/hp-awarded-3b-in-damages-from-oracle-over-itanium-database-cancellation/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="bloomberg-itanium3b">{{cite news|title=Oracle Loses $3 Million Verdict For Ditching HP Itanium Chip|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-30/oracle-ordered-to-pay-hp-3-billion-by-jury-for-itanium-damages|newspaper=Bloomberg.com|date=30 June 2016|access-date=July 1, 2016|archive-date=2016-07-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701011939/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-30/oracle-ordered-to-pay-hp-3-billion-by-jury-for-itanium-damages|url-status=live}}</ref>  Oracle unsuccessfully appealed the decision to the California Court of Appeal in 2021.<ref name="reuters-oracle">{{cite news|title=Oracle loses bid to upend HP's $3 billion win|url=https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/oracle-loses-bid-upend-hps-3-billion-win-2021-06-14/|website=Reuters|date=15 June 2021|access-date=July 7, 2021|last1=Brittain|first1=Blake|archive-date=2021-07-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709191923/https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/oracle-loses-bid-upend-hps-3-billion-win-2021-06-14/|url-status=live}}</ref>

A former Intel official reported that the Itanium business had become profitable for Intel in late 2009.<ref>{{cite news
 | url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/a-decade-later-intels-itanium-chip-makes-a-profit/
 | title=A Decade Later, Intel's Itanium Chip Makes a Profit
 | access-date=April 7, 2010
 | last=Vance
 | first=Ashlee
 | author-link=Ashlee Vance
 | date=May 21, 2009
 | newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
 | archive-date=November 4, 2011
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104141808/http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/a-decade-later-intels-itanium-chip-makes-a-profit/
 | url-status=live
 }}</ref> By 2009, the chip was almost entirely deployed on servers made by HP, which had over 95% of the Itanium server market share,<ref name="vance late"/> making the main operating system for Itanium [[HP-UX]]. On March 22, 2011, Intel reaffirmed its commitment to Itanium with multiple generations of chips in development and on schedule.<ref name="Intel Itanium Commitment">{{cite web
 | last=Darling
 | first=Patrick
 | title=Intel Reaffirms Commitment to Itanium
 | url=https://newsroom.intel.com/chip-shots/chip-shot-intel-reaffirms-commitment-to-itanium/#gs.6ytayt
 | work=Chip Shots
 | publisher=Intel
 | date=March 23, 2011
 | access-date=May 20, 2020
 | archive-date=March 27, 2020
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200327004812/https://newsroom.intel.com/chip-shots/chip-shot-intel-reaffirms-commitment-to-itanium/#gs.6ytayt
 | url-status=dead
 }}</ref>

=== Other markets ===
[[File:HP-HP9000-ZX6000-Itanium2-Workstation 12.jpg|thumb|380px|[[Hewlett-Packard|HP]] zx6000, an Itanium&nbsp;2-based [[Unix]] [[workstation]] ]]

Although Itanium did attain limited success in the niche market of high-end computing, Intel had originally hoped it would find broader acceptance as a replacement for the original [[x86]] architecture.<ref>{{cite web
 | url=http://features.techworld.com/operating-systems/2690/will-intel-abandon-the-itanium/
 | title=Will Intel abandon the Itanium?
 | date=July 20, 2006
 | author=Manek Dubash
 | quote=Once touted by Intel as a replacement for the x86 product line, expectations for Itanium have been throttled well back.
 | publisher=[[Techworld]]
 | access-date=December 19, 2010
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110219212053/http://features.techworld.com/operating-systems/2690/will-intel-abandon-the-itanium/
 | archive-date=February 19, 2011
 | url-status=dead
 }}</ref>

[[AMD]] chose a different direction, designing the less radical [[x86-64]], a 64-bit extension to the existing x86 architecture, which Microsoft then supported, forcing Intel to introduce the same extensions in its own x86-based processors.<ref>{{cite web
  | first = Charlie
  | last = Demerjian
  | title = Why Intel's Prescott will use AMD64 extensions
  | url = http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1029651/why-intels-prescott-will-use-amd64--extensions
  | website = [[The Inquirer]]
  | date = September 26, 2003
  | access-date = October 7, 2009
  | url-status = unfit
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091010181925/http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1029651/why-intels-prescott-will-use-amd64--extensions
  | archive-date = October 10, 2009
}}</ref> These designs can run existing 32-bit applications at native hardware speed, while offering support for 64-bit memory addressing and other enhancements to new applications.<ref name="vance late"/> This architecture has now become the predominant 64-bit architecture in the desktop and portable market. Although some Itanium-based workstations were initially introduced by companies such as [[Silicon Graphics|SGI]], they are no longer available.