Intel Computer Processer

Intel's Itanium brand name is used for their processors implementing the Intel Itanium architecture, formerly known as IA-64. Using this brand, Intel released two families - the original Itanium, followed by the Itanium 2, as you probably know already. The first Itanium was released in 2001, with clock speeds starting at 733MHz, and the newset one, codenamed Montvale, was launched in November 2007. While all Itanium processors after 2002 were known to belong to the Itanium 2 family, Intel just announced a return to the roots...


Vendors were informed by Intel that the Itanium 2 brand is being dropped, and they are going to get back to the roots, replacing it with the old "Itanium". This is going to happen starting on the 2nd of March, 2008, and is a part of Intel's new branding strategy (pretty weird strategy, if you ask me!).

"In order to comply with our new branding strategy, [Itanium 2 parts] will undergo a part mark change. The part will no longer be marked with Intel Itanium 2 but will now be marked Intel Itanium.", said Intel.

This branding change affects the entire Montvale family, which includes 11 dual core processors, and two single-core ones. The next Itanium generation will still be called "Itanium", but that's something we'll discuss about some other time...

Posted in: Computer Parts