Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[HailMary]

At the fundamental technical side of things, IA32E is an instruction extension - a microcode edit.

It is a lot more than that! There are a significant number of hardware changes needed to support IA32E (assuming it is fully compatible with AMD64). Take a look at the AMD64 system programming manual to get an idea of the changes and how that would affect the hardware implementation. The microcode edit is a very small part of the overall changes required.

I think the new long mode is a pretty big deal. Being able to have the O/S run in 64-bit mode while apps can run in 32-bit is the most important point. This is what will make both AMD64 and IA32E hugely successful. This doesn't rule out IA64. There is still a place for it, but it is rather small. I'm not convinced that niche segment can be profitable.