Dual-core Itanium 2 range makes debut

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 19 July 2006 18:56

Your IT - Home IT

Chipmaker Intel Corporation today unveiled five new products in the Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 Processor 9000 series. Previously codenamed “Montecito,” the new processors are designed for high-end computing platforms. According to Intel, the new processor range doubles the performance and lowers energy requirements, improving performance per watt by 2.5 times compared to existing, single-core versions.

The flagship 9050 model features two complete processing cores and nearly triples the cache or memory reservoir versus Intel’s previous generation. It also can execute four instructions or threads per processor using Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology.

“Intel remains focused on removing the proprietary shackles that remain in the high-end of the server market segment, and with Dual-Core Itanium 2 processors we are delivering unprecedented IT freedom with a product that excels in performance, reliability and improved energy efficiency,” said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager, Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group. “The broad system and software support for Itanium 2 processors enables CIOs to move away from aging and expensive legacy systems and instead direct those funds toward standard-based computing and business innovation.

Dual-core Itanium 2-based systems target the most compute intensive areas, such as business analytics, large data warehouses and HPC areas.

“Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on the new dual-core, multi-threaded Itanium 2 processor will provide exceptional performance, scalability and reliability to enterprise customers with database workloads and line of business applications,” said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. “Microsoft is resolute in its support of the Itanium architecture, today and in the future.”

Pricing and availability

Intel dual- and single-core Itanium 2 processors are shipping today with systems coming available in late August and growing throughout the year.

Dual-Core Itanium 2 processor 9050 1.6GHz  24M 533/400 MHz US$3692
 
Dual-Core Itanium 2 processor 9040 1.6GHz 18M 533/400 MHz  US$1980
 
Dual-Core Itanium 2 processor 9030 1.6GHz 8M 533/400 MHz  US$1552
 
Dual-Core Itanium 2 processor 9020 1.42GHz 12M 533/400 MHz  US$910
 
Dual-Core Itanium 2 processor 9015 1.4GHz 12M 400 MHz $749
 
Itanium 2 processor (single core) 9010 1.6GHz 6M  533/400 MHz US$696