AMD Opteron processors are not yet here, but News.com has learned that Intel plans to roll-out its so-called IA32 Execution Layer software that will emulate IA32 platform on Intel’s Itanium processors powered systems more efficiently than current hardware emulator does.

Intel's Execution Layer software is a module that plugs into an operating system and emulates the IA32 processor. The company is negotiating with Microsoft as well as distributors of Linux operating systems to include the software as a bundle with their 32-bit products.

Intel said that IA32 Execution Layer code-named btrans, will give the forthcoming 1.50GHz Itanium 2 an ability to run 32-bit software about as fast as 1.50GHz Xeon MP processors, but given not really high core-clocks of Itanium CPUs, performance of such IA64/32 system will not exceed that of Intel Xeon MP 2.0GHz-based solution much. Since emulation cannot be really fast in this case, Intel's Execution Layer should not change Intel’s strategy to encourage customers to utilise 64-bit software instead of 32-bit software. Moreover, those, who need high performance in 32-bit applications will still acquire Xeon or Opteron-based systems.

In general, Itanium processors will hardly be able to show performance comparable to fast 32-bit processors, such as Xeon 3.06GHz DP as well as with AMD’s offerings, especially, the Opteron. Nevertheless, faster performance in 32-bit environment will definitely make the IA64 platform more attractive to end-users.