Intel to introduce dual-core Itanium — finally

Just weeks after rolling out significant updates to its low-end Xeon processor, Intel is expected to focus on the high end with the long-awaited release of a dual-core version of Itanium, code-named Montecito.

Intel Digital Enterprise Senior Vice President and General Manager Pat Gelsinger is expected to debut the processor, which already is shipping to system manufacturers, at an event at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco on July 18, according to sources. System vendors such as HP and Fujitsu say they plan to announce servers based on the dual-core processor in coming weeks.

“It’s got some important stuff in it: It’s got the power management, it’s got improvements in the bus architecture, it’s got dual core,” says Joe Clabby, president of Clabby Analytics. “It almost makes it competitive with some of the other chips that have been out there for a year or two.”

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Just weeks after rolling out significant updates to its low-end Xeon processor, Intel is expected to focus on the high end with the long-awaited release of a dual-core version of Itanium, code-named Montecito.

Intel Digital Enterprise Senior Vice President and General Manager Pat Gelsinger is expected to debut the processor, which already is shipping to system manufacturers, at an event at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco on July 18, according to sources. System vendors such as HP and Fujitsu say they plan to announce servers based on the dual-core processor in coming weeks.

“It’s got some important stuff in it: It’s got the power management, it’s got improvements in the bus architecture, it’s got dual core,” says Joe Clabby, president of Clabby Analytics. “It almost makes it competitive with some of the other chips that have been out there for a year or two.”

Indeed, Itanium has been struggling in the market in large part because of road map delays. Montecito originally was to have launched last October, but Intel put off the release, altering features of the chip at the same time.

The chip’s clock speed, for example, was reduced from 2 GHz to 1.6 GHz. Its front side bus, which connects the CPU to memory, will run at 533 MHz rather than 667 MHz. In addition, Intel scrapped plans to include Foxton, an advanced power management technology, though the chip does include power management features. It also is the first Itanium processor to include Intel’s silicon-based virtualization technology, an Intel spokesman says.

Montecito is more energy efficient than its predecessor, running at a maximum of 104 watts, about 20% cooler than existing Itanium processors that max out at about 130 watts.

While analysts say Montecito offers competitive updates, some customers say the enhancements may be too little too late.

Dave Geiver, vice president of technology for Premier Bankcard, which services the credit card accounts for First Premier Bank, has been running Itanium-based HP Integrity servers since 2004 to support Microsoft SQL database and business intelligence (BI) applications. He saw significant improvements initially but has been unhappy with Intel’s delays.

“We planned from the initial purchase of our Integrity servers to upgrade to the Montecito chips. Premier has a high performance/high demand BI environment and needs the performance,” says Geiver, based in Sioux Falls, S.D. “The delay and reduced clock speed have hurt our organization.”

While Premier Bankcard continues to look at Montecito, it also is reassessing the market — looking at Xeon-based servers, as well, for example — “to make sure we are getting the performance/price value that benefits our organization before committing to the upgrade,” Geiver says.

While Intel targets Itanium at workloads such as high-performance computing, high-end databases and large ERP applications, 64-bit-capable x86-based servers from AMD and Intel are beginning to eat into the market typically dominated by Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC)-based systems.