Intel has released the newest in the line of Itanium 2 processors, both of which featuring a faster 667MHz front side bus. The company has forecast more than a 65% increase in system bandwidth over the previous generation of Itanium 2 chips, which had a 400 MHz FSB.
The new processor, codenamed Montecito, is setting the stage for the forthcoming dual core Itanium processor which Intel has on its roadmap. The improved FSB allows for 10.6 gigabits of data per second. Hitachi is using the new chip in the new generation of BladeSymphony servers, and already has a chipset that takes advantage of the increased system bandwidth.
A 1.66 GHz Itanium 2 with 9 MB of cache and 667 FSB is expected to retail near $5000, while the version with a 6 MB cache will retail for approximately $3000.