"... there is no new thing under the sun."
Eccl.
Visit the Itanium Overview
page by Rick Vinyard to get acquainted with the processor specification and IA-64 features.
Don't panic if something looks unclear. You will get it.
Have fun with Itanium tutorials in the Intel Training Center.
It might be a good idea to start with
Then you can look through
More questions? Read the Intel's Manuals.
The Itanium Architecture Software Developer's Manual Vol. 1-4 rev. 1.1 is available.
Volumes 1 and 3 are good for the first reading.
Some information on cache hierarchies, memory management and instruction execution latencies can be found in
Other reference materials can be found in the Intel Itanium Processor Family Home page.