Mel Flynn wrote: > On Wednesday 05 August 2009 05:27:55 Erik Trulsson wrote: > > >> The amd64 architecture is called that because it was AMD who invented and >> created it and was for a while the only one using it and since AMD named >> the architecture AMD64 that was the name FreeBSD used too. Later Intel >> also started using it (while using their own name(s) for it), but FreeBSD >> has stuck with the name amd64. >> > > This isn't completely correct. There is actually an ia64 architecture, before > Intel was ready to give up the "who dictates the PC 64bit architecture" > battle. There's a handful of CPU's who use that instruction set, but later > Intel switched to supporting AMD's instruction set and thus the PC 64 bit > architecture now is amd64. > > It'll be fun to see people asking in a few years why Oracle processors are > called "sparc64"... > Now I come to think of it, isn't it strange apple(or IBM) never joined in the whole 64-bits naming race spactacle. No one ever calls a PowerPC 970 processor a PowerPC-64, or a IBM64 or anything like it... Nor have I ever heard the term RISC64. Too bad we won't have to worry about that anymore, since PowerPC is dead and Mac Pro's are now amd64(or Intel 64 or x86-64 whichever would be the "correct" term ;-) )
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