itanium 2 is barely based on x86. It is a 64bit server class processor that, if i remember the numbers correctly, is at times up to 15% faster than the Opteron at about 7 times the cost (and it can't do 32 bit except through emulation, which is EXTREMELY inefficient). the centrino is a chipset, not a processor. the centrino processor is a P4M that includes certain things like _intel_ 802.11b etc. and everyone knows what the P4 is. There are white papers on these kinds of things if you want to get down to the nitty gritty of the processor design and architecture as to why they do certain things like they do.
|