2. Sure Microsoft does. They want to sell software. Including 64-bit versions of Windows. Intel is telling people there's no large need for 64-bit (for the consumer) until 2007. AMD is shipping Athlon64 in September. If you're Microsoft, supporting AMD64 makes great sense.
3. Let's agree: Itanium dissipates "significantly more" power than Opteron.
5. I'm not sure about that. I expect the AMD64 beta of Windows 2003 Server due this summer will include the .NET framework.
I very much disagree on the Yamhill impact. Even one tiny hint of another 64-bit product from Intel will put Itanium purchase decisions on hold, if not outright kill them. No one wants to buy a soon-to-be-discontinued product, and that will be the perception. And that perception will make it the reality.
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