The goal of the Atlas project is to ready the 64-bit Linux computing environment and the open source community for the next generation of high-end computing platforms for enterprise data centers. This includes extending Linux to support the Intel 870 and other OEM chipsets used in conjunction with the upcoming Itanium 2™ processor, the second member of Intel's Itanium™ processor family.

The Linux implementation created by the Atlas Project will take advantage of the advanced features of these high-end chipsets and will expand the functionality of Linux for scaling up to the enterprise and competing with other data center-class operating systems.