Itanium pilot program takes off

Intel Corp.'s 64-bit Itanium chip is slowly making its way to the market. One month into a pilot program that allows users to kick the tires on the new chip, Intel estimates that roughly 20 pilot systems have been placed with large corporate customers. Arguing that Itanium would not see the same initial demand as a chip like the Pentium 4, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) chose a pilot program for the first phase of its Itanium launch. PC makers that participate in the program can ship small numbers of near-production-level systems to customers for evaluation. Full story -- John G. Spooner, ZDNet News