Intel on Tuesday reiterated plans to deliver by midyear its IA-32 Execution Layer for Windows. The release of this software is an important step in Intel's strategy of encouraging user companies to migrate to servers running on the chipmaker's 64-bit Itanium processors.

Although 32-bit applications won't run as efficiently on Itanium servers as their 64-bit counterparts, the IA-32 Execution Layer software is expected to help 32-bit apps run at 50% to 70% of the performance level of a 64-bit app. This would be the equivalent of running those 32-bit apps on a 1.5-GHz Xeon processor, says Mike Fister, senior VP and general manager of Intel's enterprise platforms group.

Intel is developing the execution layer software for Windows but hasn't ruled out Linux. "There's no ecosystem in Linux that's parallel to the one Microsoft has," Fister says. Still, Intel will work with Linux provider Red Hat Inc. to create support for 32-bit apps for the open-source operating system by year's end.