The Register: Intel targets Sun with Itanium 2 benchmarks

Sun's director of marketing for its processor products group, Sue Kunz, questioned how far Intel's figures went in giving a true comparison between the platforms. She said the benchmarks Intel used "fitted" into the 3MB cache the McKinley will ship with, which made for high scores. But, she said, "customers are going to wait and run real apps to see what they're going to get."

She added that Intel appeared to have compared the Itanium 2, which will debut at 1GHz, with a range of different Sparc processors. "The numbers are fairly muddled."

Judge for yourself. Starting point - the Intel spin-meisters at Intel Projects Record-Setting IntelŪ ItaniumŪ 2 Processor Performance On Key Enterprise, Technical Applications. But note the caveat on that page ;-):

Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. Buyers should consult other sources of information to evaluate the performance of systems or components they are considering purchasing.