Intel confirms Itanium delay

Intel confirmed that its 64-bit Itanium processor, originally scheduled for released in the third quarter of this year, won't be available to most customers until the first half of next year.

Company officials said testing to ensure that the new architecture was bulletproof prompted Intel to delay the product, and that the only computers featuring the chip that will ship this year will be "pilot systems." Formerly know by its code name Merced, Itanium is expected to debut at speeds of 733 MHz and 800 MHz.

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