Intel Tukwila Release Slips

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intelIntel, today, released an updated time line for the release of its latest version of the Itanium RISC processor series.  Codenamed Tukwila, the new silicon has slipped out into Q1 of 2010.  Intel’s official release states:

During final system-level testing, we identified an opportunity to further enhance application scalability best optimized for high-end systems. This will result in a change to the Tukwila shipping schedule to Q1 2010.

In addition to better meeting the needs of our current Itanium customers, we believe this change will allow Tukwila systems a greater opportunity to gain share versus proprietary RISC solutions including Sparc and IBM Power. Tukwila is tracking to 2x performance vs its predecessor chip. This change is about delivering even further application scalability for mission critical workloads.

Intel’s latest foray into the Itanium line has experienced an especially bumpy past.  First and foremost, its a complete departure from the previous memory and I/O architecture.  Tukwila will sport Intel’s QuickPath Interconnect [QPI], just as the new Nehalem Xeon series.  It will also ship with integrated memory controllers similar to its x86_64 brethren.  All this, based on a 65nm fab process.  When development began in 2003, Intel had planned on releasing [then called Tanglewood] around 2007, but I think we’ve missed that mark by a few months.  However, considering the relatively low volume of sales and production, there doesn’t seem to be a whole host of vendors that are terribly worried.

For more info on the slippage, read the full article at CNET here.