Chip giant Intel says that it does not give a monkey's about Microsoft's snub of its Itaniaum chip. This week Redmond said that it was not going to bother supporting the Itanium in its server products and many felt that this would miff Intel a lot.

An Intel spokesman said that most of the Itanium servers around the world do not run Microsoft Windows anyway. He said that it represents six per cent of current Itanium sales and most Itanium users run HP-UX.

Intel said that most customers would argue that the combination of HP-UX and the Itanium platform represent a very formidable mission-critical solution. Intel still sees the Itanium as the choice for mission critical customers.

Even though Microsoft and Red Hat have decided to leave Itanium support by the wayside, Intel sees a continued need for its IA64 processor technology.