What is the difference between x64 and IA-64?

Question

I was on a Microsoft site and noticed two different installers, one for x64 and one for IA-64. Link: Installing the .NET Framework 4.5, 4.5.1

As far as I understand, IA-64 is a subclass of x64, so I'm curious why it will have a separate installer.

Answer 1

x64 is used as a short term for 64-bit extensions of the "classic" x86 architecture; almost any “normal” PC created in recent years has a processor based on this architecture.

AMD invented AMD64 extensions; Intel was more or less forced to introduce them and named them first IA-32e, then EM64T and, finally, Intel 64 (in fact, the AMD and Intel extensions are not exactly the same, but they are almost identical).

Many people also call this material x86-64 to have a manufacturer-independent name and emphasize the fact that this is a 64-bit evolution of x86 architecture. All “regular” PCs that are sold with “64-bit processors” run on x86-64 architecture.

IA-64 (Intel Architecture 64) is an almost completely unrelated 64-bit architecture (also known as Itanium) developed by Intel for high-performance servers. It was said that Itanium may have replaced the x86 architecture, but this architecture did not have much success (for various reasons), so it is unlikely that you will need IA-64 installers.

For more information, you can read the wikipedia articles on x86-64 and Itanium .

Answer 2

IA-64 is Intel Itanium architecture. This is a set of instructions for a processor with a very long command (VLIW).

x86_64 is a common 64-bit architecture used by processors inside each laptop / desktop computer on modern computers. This processor is a dynamic processor.

The main difference between the two is that

In VLIW, the compiler resolves dependencies between instructions and their corresponding schedule. The processor simply executes them.

With a dynamic processor, the compiler simply schedules the instructions without worrying about dependencies. The processor takes care of the dependencies, reorders them and executes them accordingly.

VLIW code depends on each internal chip architecture. The compiler must know this information. Their advantage is that it can extract much more parallelism than dynamic processors can.

The code is independent of each internal chip architecture for dynamic processors. He just has to follow the instructions. Thus, code compiled on one machine can work on other machines very easily. The disadvantage is that limited parallelism can be used for dynamic processors. Both internal logic and design are very complex and complex than VLIW.

However, dynamic processors are used today mainly by consumers (private individuals), so they can run code compiled / generated on any machine. VLIW processors are used by servers and enterprises because of the parallelism that they can produce.

Answer 3

they are different

IA-64 - itanium - server architecture

x64 is what Intel's 64-bit core and amd cpus implement

Answer 4

x64 is short for x86-64, which is an extension of the x86 instruction set.

IA-64 is for Itanium 64-bit architecture (from Intel)

Answer 5

IA-64 is designed for computers with 64-bit Intel Itanium processors. They do not support the launch of 32-bit applications, such as x64 processors. To work on these processors requires a special version of Windows, so two different installers.

Answer 6

They have a different set of commands, this is a key point.