Intel on Monday is expected
to detail Tukwila, its next generation of 64-bit Itanium processors that are used
in enterprise servers.

The new processor, due for release by the end of 2008, has a quad-core design
that doubles the performance of systems with Intel's Itanium 9100 dual-core
processors, said Justin Rattner, chief technology officer at Intel.

Tukwila will be detailed during a session at the International Solid State
Circuits Conference in San Francisco this week.

The processor will run at up to 2GHz and include the QuickPath Interconnect
system architecture with an integrated memory controller for improved communication
links between system components, Rattner said. The architecture, different from
Intel's x86 architecture, is designed to support data-intensive applications.
The processor works with Unix, Linux and Windows Server OS software.

The boost in performance provided by Tukwila will be an upgrade for the set
of developers writing applications for Itanium processors, which are targeted
at vertical markets with data-intensive applications, like data warehousing,
said Richard Doherty, director of analyst firm The Envisioneering Group.

The QuickPath Interconnect architecture will also be part of Nehalem, Intel's
next-generation x86 processor due out later in 2008. In the first public demonstration
of the Nehalem processor at Intel Developer Forum at San Francisco last year,
Intel CEO Paul Otellini said QuickPath Interconnect helps Nehalem deliver better
performance-per-watt and better system performance.

The Tukwila architecture will include 30M bytes of on-die cache, a 10 percent
increase over the current Itanium. It will also include dual-integrated memory
controllers, Rattner said.

Tukwila is targeted at servers running enterprise applications, so the design
includes an advanced RAS (reliability, availability and serviceability) feature
to reduce data corruption and ensure reliable system performance, Rattner said.
Advanced RAS features correct errors that may occur when data is being crunched
on a processor.

The system is built on a record number of transistors, Rattner said. "To
our knowledge, that's the first 2 billion transistor [microprocessor],"
he said.

The Tukwila processor will be manufactured using the 65-nanometer process technology.
Intel will skip the 45-nanometer process and jump to the 32-nanometer for the
Tukwila processor upgrade, code-named Poulson, said Susan Tauzer, director of
Itanium marketing at Intel. No release date was provided for Poulson.

Intel is working closely with Microsoft, Novell/SUSE, Red Hat, Hewlett-Packard
and other key OS, system and application vendors on the delivery of Tukwila
systems, Tauzer said.

IDG News Service

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