Intel's new Itanium chip, Poulson, to launch later this year

12.09.2012
Intel on Tuesday said it was on track to launch the next-generation Itanium processor later this year, brushing away any speculation that the processor would reach its end of life in the near future.

The next-generation Itanium chip for Unix and Linux servers, code-named Poulson, will succeed the current Itanium chip code-named Tukwila, which was released in 2009 after many delays. The chip is used in fault-tolerant servers that typically run high-end applications.

"We're on track for the launch of Poulson later this year," said Diane Bryant, vice president and general manager of the Datacenter and Connected Systems Group, during an interview at the Intel Developer Forum being held in San Francisco.

Intel is also developing new server chips for workloads such as cloud and high-performance computing. The company has started shipping test units of its Xeon E5 and E7 servers based on the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, and has assigned the new brand Atom S to its low-power Atom server chips. The Xeon and Atom S chips are targeted at servers based on the Windows and Linux operating systems.

"We have the best solution for every workload that emerges from the data center," Bryant said.

A big event is being planned for the launch of the Itanium chip code-named Poulson later this year, Bryant said. The company will continue to develop Itanium processors and is developing Poulson's followup Kittson.