The Intel Itanium 2 processor is uniquely architected for demanding enterprise and technical applications. Itanium 2-based platforms enable businesses and organizations to maximize their return on investments by delivering industry leading performance at generally lower cost and with greater choice than proprietary RISC technologies. Itanium 2 processors are supported by a rich ecosystem of highly scalable, open-standard 64-bit solutions from over 40 leading hardware vendors, more than five operating systems including Windows Server 2003, HP-UX and Linux, and hundreds of applications and tools. In addition, Itanium 2 processors are binary-compatible with existing Itanium-based software to provide investment protection. IA-32 applications are supported by Itanium processor family and support will be enhanced with the planned introduction of IA-32 Execution Layer.