Itanium 2 has better performance and price/performance than Xeon MP.
New TPC-C results show that Windows .NET Server improves database performance enough so that 1.0GHz Itanium 2 has quite an edge over the 2.0GHz Xeon MP.
HP rx5670 (1GHz Itanium 2): 87,741 TpmC, $441,022 System Price - 5.03 US$/TpmC HP ProLiant DL580-G2 (2GHz Xeon MP): 77,905 TpmC, $413,764 System Price - 5.32 US$/TpmC
With the current scores, we can see as close an apples-apples comparison as possible under realistic conditions, and the Itanium 2 system clearly shows value leadership. Hopefully, end-users and corporations start to take note.