Linux kernel maintainer Linus Torvalds has charged that Itanium designers "threw out all the good parts of the x86." One emerging niche for Itanium, though, seems to be high-speed encryption and decryption. For instance, encryption and key management provider Eruces Inc. of Lenexa, Kan., is bullish on Itanium. Eruces devotes a large chunk of its business to federal intelligence agencies. The company's symmetric key management system encrypts documents, programs and databases, using a centralized KeyServer to generate and manage keys.

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