A software-based x86 translation layer for the Itanium family of CPUs. IA-32 Execution Layer (IA-32 EL) ships with Itanium-based operating systems and is used to translate x86 instructions into native Itanium instructions for execution. IA-32 EL provides a way to run legacy applications "as is" before they can be recompiled into native Itanium programs. See
Itanium.