[SOLVED] Should my C++ program support IA64 or only x64?

Should my C++ program support IA64 or only x64?

Should my program support IA64, or should it only support x64?

I haven't been able to easily find IA64 computers myself. Is IA64 dead?

MS seems to have a wide support for IA64, but it took me a long time to be able to find an IA64, and I had to end up getting it on eBay.

Solution

What kind of software do you develop? If it's not a data center type of application or a high-end number crunching app, I'd be surprised if there were any demand for an ia64 version. And even then, I'd think it would be a situation where if you have to ask if you should support it, you probably don't need to.

A couple things off the top of my head that might hamper an ia64 port:

any third party tools or libraries you're depending on need to support it
unaligned accesses that go largely unnoticed on x86 and x64 will cause headaches on ia64

Of course, I don't work for Gartner or IDC or anyone who does market analysis, so you should take what I say here with whatever skepticism you have lying around.

Have any customers or potential customers inquired?