Microsoft Windows Server to end support on Itanium

In the category of declining-Unix-market news, Microsoft has decided to make Windows Server 2008 R2 the last version it will support on Intel’s Itanium chip.

This isn’t too much of a surprise, nor is it that much of a blow to Itanium at this point. While Itanium may have had dreams long ago of completely taking over the server processor market, that tree has just not borne fruit, and those dreams are long dead. Most people now know that Itanium is largely a chip used by old HP PA-RISC users who mainly want a new platform to port their HP-UX applications to.

Still, it is one more chip in the armor of the ever-resilient, yet ever-declining Unix market, and I’ll be working on a story about it this week. If you are running Windows Server on Itanium and want to give me your thoughts, e-mail me at mfontecchio(at)techtarget.com.