Intel Launches New 2 Billion Transistor Itanium

It's the Intel processor for critical missions.

Running a mission-critical… mission? Intel this week introduced the Itanium processor 9300 series, previously codenamed "Tukwila," which delivers more than double the performance of its predecessor.

Helping boost performance in this two-billion transistor Itanium processor 9300 series is that it has twice as many cores as its predecessor (four versus two), eight threads per processor (through enhanced Hyper-Threading Technology), more cache, up to 800 percent the interconnect bandwidth, up to 500 percent the memory bandwidth, and up to 700 percent the memory capacity using-industry standard DDR3 components.

The processor's advanced machine-check architecture coordinates error handling across the hardware, firmware and operating system, and improves system availability by enabling recovery from otherwise fatal errors.

The Itanium 9300 processor employs the second generation of Intel Virtualization Technology to improve performance and robustness. Its Intel 7500 chipset can directly assign I/O devices to virtual machines, further boosting efficiency.

"Intel is committed to delivering a new era of mission-critical computing, and we are delighted 80 percent of Global 100 companies have chosen Itanium-based servers for their most demanding workloads," said Kirk Skaugen, vice president Intel Architecture Group and general manager Data Center Group. "Intel is continuing to drive the economics of Moore's Law into mission-critical computing with today's Itanium 9300 processor announcement, more than doubling performance for our customers once again."

Don't expect this to be something that you'd have at home to run Crysis, however, as the Itanium processor 9300 series ranges in price from $946 to $3,838 in quantities of 1,000.