How many 64 bit architectures are out there ?

I have heard of IA64 bit and x64 bit ? Is there an AMD64 as well or is the
same as x64? Can someone tell me what else is out there and differences
between those ?
Is x86 a 32 bit equivalent of x64 ? If so whats the 32 bit eqiivalent to
IA64 called ?
I take it that SQL 20005 only has its bits on IA64 and x64 right ?There are only two 64 bit architectures supported by SQL Server (and
actually driven by the supported 64-bit architectures for Windows). The
separation is based on the underlying processor architecture.
The first one is IA-64 (or Itanium) and it is based on the EPIC (Explicitly
Parallel Instruction Computing) instruction set. This is Intel's first true
64-bit chip.
The second 64 bit architecture is x64 (or x86-64) which is essentially the
x86 architecture with extensions to include 64 bit functionality. All Intel
x64 and AMD64 processors fall in this category. It was first introduced with
AMD's Athlon 64.
There is no 32 bit equivalent for IA-64 as it was designed to be 64 bit from
the beginning.
It is more correct to say x86-32 for the 32-bit equivalent, as x86 is the
generic name for the architecture which started with Intel's 8086 processor
which was 16-bit. The x86-32 was introduced with the Intel 386 processor.
See more details on 64-bit computing with SQL Server 2005 here:
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editio...t/overview.mspx
Regards,
Plamen Ratchev
http://www.SQLStudio.com
"Hassan" <Hassan@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:O39B4jtLHHA.1044@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>I have heard of IA64 bit and x64 bit ? Is there an AMD64 as well or is the
>same as x64? Can someone tell me what else is out there and differences
>between those ?
> Is x86 a 32 bit equivalent of x64 ? If so whats the 32 bit eqiivalent to
> IA64 called ?
> I take it that SQL 20005 only has its bits on IA64 and x64 right ?
>|||To add on to Plamen's response, AMD64 (AMD) and EMT64 (Intel) are basically
vendor-specific names for x64.
Hope this helps.
Dan Guzman
SQL Server MVP
"Hassan" <Hassan@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:O39B4jtLHHA.1044@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>I have heard of IA64 bit and x64 bit ? Is there an AMD64 as well or is the
>same as x64? Can someone tell me what else is out there and differences
>between those ?
> Is x86 a 32 bit equivalent of x64 ? If so whats the 32 bit eqiivalent to
> IA64 called ?
> I take it that SQL 20005 only has its bits on IA64 and x64 right ?
>|||In addition, read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X64
Linchi
"Hassan" wrote:

> I have heard of IA64 bit and x64 bit ? Is there an AMD64 as well or is the
> same as x64? Can someone tell me what else is out there and differences
> between those ?
> Is x86 a 32 bit equivalent of x64 ? If so whats the 32 bit eqiivalent to
> IA64 called ?
> I take it that SQL 20005 only has its bits on IA64 and x64 right ?
>
>