Intel Itanium platform future plans revealed

So, the Itanium MP family for multiprocessor systems will be extended this year with a new 1.7GHz processor with Madison 9M core with 9MB L3 cache. At the same time, the current Itanium DP (Madison) and LV Itanium DP (Deerfield) products will be replaced by models on Fanwood core with 3MB L3 cache, 1.6GHz standard and 1.2GHz low-voltage clock speeds.

The year 2005 should bring the most interesting events in this field, because Intel plans to unveil its 2-processor Montecito chip. We already know that Montecito will be made using 90nm process, will feature integrated power management system, up to 24MB L3 cache, Pellston reliability support, Foxton performance support. The processor will be used in Bayshore platform based on PCI Express and DDR2 technology and higher-clock FSB.

The next generation of Montecito-based Itanium MP multiprocessor cores will be named Tukwila. Currently we only know that it will be developed by specialists that worked on Alpha chips in the past. Naturally Tukwila will be the base for the standard Dimona and low-voltage LV Dimona designed for dual-processor market. Besides, Montecito will also become the base for two DP solutions, Millington (standard and LV).