Intel has revealed more details of its next-generation 64-bit Itanium processor, code-named Montecito, and on the progress Itanium-based servers have made in businesses against the high-performance computing environments where Itanium 2 already has traction.
When Montecito debuts in 2005, the processor will include 24 Mbytes of Level 3 cache memory and two cores, each with multithreading capabilities. Montecito's successor, Tanglewood, will have more than two cores. This multithread, multicore architecture enables up to 6 Mbytes of on-die cache as well as 48 Gb/s of bandwidth and a 6.4-Gb/s system bus.
Sales to business customers in the second half this year will be up 65 percent over sales during the first half of the year, says Lisa Graff, director of Intel's Itanium 2 worldwide ramp program.
Graff attributes Itanium 2's success partly to the growing number of applications available--1,000 by year's end, with 1,500 expected by mid-2004.
Databases are the top set of applications Intel is seeing deployed on Itanium-based servers, followed by ERP and business-intelligence software, Graff says. 'More Itanium deals today are for the enterprise ... as opposed to high-performance computing environments,' he adds.
These improvements are necessary to help Itanium 2 compete not only with RISC processors but also with Intel's 32-bit Xeon processors, Gartner VP Martin Reynolds says. 'Itanium may show some promise for businesses as its performance increases.'
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