Intel delays Itanium upgrade to add new capabilities

From InfoWorld: Intel on Tuesday said it has delayed the release of the quad-core Tukwila chip, its next-generation 64-bit Itanium processor designed for use in enterprise servers.

The chip maker will now release Tukwila around the middle of this year, Intel officials said. The chip was due for release early this year, but Intel delayed it to add new capabilities to keep the chip in line with future technology advancements.

"[Tukwila] is very healthy, [the delay is] not due to the product not being healthy," said Susan Tauzer, server marketing director at Intel. "We updated the schedule based on adding a couple of end-user benefits and engineering capabilities," Tauzer said.

Intel plans to add a new memory technology that can speed up server performance and provide backward-socket compatibility for future Itanium chips as it readies the Tukwila platform.

Intel is making the Tukwila socket backward-compatible for a future generation of Itanium CPUs, Tauzer said. Intel plans to follow up Tukwila with the Poulson and Kittson platforms, and chips from those platforms will plug into sockets designed for the Tukwila chip.

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