Intel Corp. is expected to provide a sneak preview of its x86-based, 64-bit processor line during the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) Feb. 17-19. "They will demonstrate it at IDF," said Nathan Brookwood of market watcher Insight64 in Saratoga, Calif.

The new processor is a major change in strategy for Intel. Seeking to fend off a sudden charge from rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Intel has been working on its code-named "CT" technology for 32/64-bit processor designs. Formerly called "Yamhill", "CT" enables a 32-bit chip to support 64-bit programs.

Read more: EE Times.

This reminds me a bit of the k6-2 situation. At the time, AMD introduced 3Dnow which was a first generation SIMD instruction set. It was more or less successfull being included in the next version of DirectX & all but it was only until Intel introduced them in the P3 with SSE that it really took off.

I wonder if the same will happen here. People really like the idea of migrating from 32 to 64 without too much hassle but I still believe that they would rather do it with Intel ( if given the choice ). If a Xeon were to have that 32/64 compatibility, I think it would work really well in that market, not to mention making it worse for the Itanium.

This reminds me of the Itanium - wasn't the Itanium marketed as a 64-bit chip to support 32-bit programs? It sounds to me like the CT chip is a 32-bit chip with 64-bit extensions. This can't be proved until we see some solid 64-bit benchmarks, but it looks to me like this is a rush-release from Intel to try a stop AMDs advance up the propularity ladder.
This also effectivly kills Itanium - atleast until 64-bits OS's become popular.
However, I think you are right Didou - Intel do still have the name and that will work wonders on the general population of the planet.

Steg

Its good that Intel is trying to catch up..but I hope AMD's 64-bit processors become more mainstream, and increase competition(I want lower prices..)

Well I sell Itanium servers and such and tbh I can see intel just modifying something on that chip to make it worth the money. If they do something with one of their chips Intel will have to raise the bar on the rest of their range. I mean the Itanium has 6mb of cache, the xeon 2mb (some may vary), P4 Extreme 2mb, P4 512kb & finally the Celeron with a whopping 128kb....

In my opinion i'd say this will mean a whole lot of new designed chips or modifactions. Cheaper chips from AMD.. hmmm wonder who will be the king of the castle in 5 years.

hey, the pentium 4 extereme has a high cache size if I'm not mistaken, but it is not 32 bit, is it? I think windows xp professional corporate edition would operate w/it w/out problem, correct?