How bad are Intel's 64-bit Itanium (formerly code-named Merced) sales? Let's just say they aren't even threatening PowerPC sales. In fact, sales are so bad that Dell recently canceled its Itanium-based Precision 730 workstation, which went into production just last summer. Even sales of servers based on the high-end chip are lousy: International Data Corporation (IDC) said less than 1 percent of sold servers use the new chip. The current Itanium is a first-generation processor that's set to be replaced by a faster version, code-named McKinley, later this year. Something tells me that McKinley's early announcement, coupled with a lack of 64-bit specific software, is the problem.