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New Intel itanium 2 platforms make strides from casinos to space

Announcement posted by Intel 10 Nov 2004

Intel Corporation enhanced its entire line of Intel Itanium 2 processors, delivering new versions of multi, dual and low voltage processors. These new processors are the next step toward the goal of using computing platforms based on industry standards to gain more market segment share from the US$20 billion proprietary RISC market. (1)
More than 70 OEMs are now shipping Itanium-based systems. The platform currently supports a choice of five leading operating systems and a vast suite of software applications, increasing the choice and flexibility of Itanium-based solutions for IT managers worldwide.
The Itanium 2 platform provides excellent computing advantages for transaction processing, data warehousing, business intelligence, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and high-performance computing. This platform complements Intel Xeon processors with Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel EM64T) which are targeted at general purpose enterprise applications such as Web, workgroup, file, print, infrastructure and application logic, giving IT managers end-to-end 64-bit computing solutions.
The multibillion dollar RISC market segment is ripe for the Intel approach of delivering outstanding performance, choice of systems and software at more affordable price points, said Abhi Talwalkar, vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Platforms Group at Intel. Todays enhancements to the Itanium 2 processor lineup will further support customer migration away from costly, proprietary systems.
Already, the new Itanium 2 processors are being deployed for mission-critical applications including powering one of the worlds fastest supercomputer at NASA, a SGI Altix* system consisting of 10,240 Itanium 2 processors running the Linux operating system. Additionally, MGM MIRAGE, a leading and respected hotel and gaming company, has deployed a Unisys system with 16 Itanium 2 processors for a data-warehousing project based upon Microsoft Windows* Server 2003 and Microsoft SQL* Server 2000.
Unisys ES7000* servers with Itanium 2 processors meet our needs for the massive data crunching and analysis we do on our customer data because of the reliability features and scalability they deliver for future growth," said Glenn Bonner, CIO for MGM MIRAGE.
The Bank of New York has deployed a four-way HP Integrity-based Itanium 2 processor server running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 as part of a global equity trading solution that enables them to manage growth in business volume and address increasing transaction complexities.
We removed a critical hurdle to business growth and achieved 100 per cent hardware ROI within three months by deploying our trading system on the Itanium 2 processor-based HP Integrity Servers running Windows, said Joseph Weisbord, chief technology officer, G-Trade Services Ltd, a broker-dealer subsidiary of The Bank of New York. HP Integrity servers deliver substantial price performance benefits compared to proprietary RISC solutions and provide a rock solid foundation for business-critical applications like our 24-by-7 global equity trading platform.
Intel is refreshing the Itanium 2 product line with six new processors that deliver performance increases of 15 per cent for database transaction processing and up to 35 per cent for overall integer and floating point performance. (2) The new processors include the Itanium 2 processor MP at 1.60 GHz with 9 MB level three (L3) cache at 400 MHz front side bus (FSB) for business critical applications such as database and ERP. Also available are the Itanium 2 processor MP at 1.60 GHz with 6 MB of L3 cache and the Itanium 2 processor MP at 1.50 GHz with 4 MB of L3 cache. A HP Integrity Superdome based on the new processors is the first to achieve the100,000 sales and distribution users milestone on the SAP SD 3-tier benchmark. (3)
The Itanium 2 processor DP at 1.60 GHz with 3 MB L3 cache at 400 and 533 MHz FSB delivers outstanding price performance for high performance computing clusters and front-end enterprise systems. The new processor also delivers outstanding floating point performance per compute node, resulting in up to 40 per cent better price per gigaflops (billion calculations per second), a measure of price-performance for compute-intensive workloads, over RISC-based systems. (2)
The Itanium 2 processor LV at 1.30 GHz with 3 MB of L3 cache at only 62 watts is price and power optimised for low cost systems and dense form factors such as blade servers. Intel also offers Itanium-based server platforms based on these new processors to systems builders and product integrators.
A wide range of Itanium 2 processor systems ranging from two-way to 512-way systemsis available from system manufacturers worldwide including Bull, Dell, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, Hitachi, IBM, Kraftway, Lenovo, NEC, Maxdata, Optimus, Samsung, SGI and Unisys.
Intel Itanium 2 Processor Pricing4
MP Products Price in 1,000-unit quantities
Itanium 2 processor 1.60 GHz with 9 MB L3 cache US$4,226
Itanium 2 processor 1.60 GHz with 6 MB L3 cache 1,980
Itanium 2 processor 1.50 GHz with 4 MB L3 cache 910
DP Products Price in 1,000-unit quantities

Itanium 2 processor 1.60 GHz with 3 MB L3 cache, 533 MHz FSB US$1,172
Itanium 2 processor 1.60 GHz with 3 MB L3 cache, 400 MHz FSB 851
LV Products
Low Voltage Itanium 2 processor 1.30 GHz with 3 MB L3 cache US$530
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Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.