General question: Was this information contained in an article, or it it your thoughts? If the former, can you supply a link?
re: But Itanium II did little better than Itanium I, and recently was pretty much pulled from the market due to a very minor bug that was found in a few of the chips shipped in production systems.
Please supply corroboration that it "was pretty much pulled from the market due to a very minor bug that was found in a few of the chips shipped in production systems."
re: Judging by the count of server systems being advertised in the current issue of the Linux Journal, the server market is making the move from 32-bits to 64-bits - now. And that's why I say that Intel is in a quite unexpected "do or die" position with the third version of the Itanium - if AMD continues to dominate in the 64-bit server market, Intel could wind up losing a big chunk of its revenue and all of its profits.
Aside from counting "ads", what data can you provide to prove your assertion that "AMD continues to dominate in the 64-bit server market"?
If I follow your logical thread, AMD must be nonexistent when you compare the number of "Intel Inside" ads in print, television, and cooperative programs to those touting AMD. Thus, I must view this datum as an insignificant metric. What other data can you provide to prove that "AMD continues to dominate in the 64-bit server market" or, for that matter, ever dominated the server market? I'm not asking for some anecdotal reference here. You have made a quantifiable claim. Back it up.