When it looked like AMD was going to render Intel’s multibillion dollar IA64 effort (aka Itanium) irrelevant with its brassy push into 64-bit computing using an extended x86 architecture, Intel responded with EM64T. When it was first revealed that Intel had an x86-64 project in the works, codenamed Yamhill, the company at first denied the project’s existence. Eventually, though, EM64T surfaced, and it proved to be a near-clone of AMD’s x86-64. There are some subtle differences in calling conventions between the two processors, but the differences are slight enough that compatibility isn’t usually a worry.
Link: extremetech.com
