Itanium 2 chips roar into servers
ZDNet | at | by Mike
Intel will manufacture complete servers and other components based on its upcoming Itanium 2 processor as a way to smooth acceptance in the market for the server chip. The upcoming product family, code-named Tiger, will include motherboards, chipsets, enclosures and a complete four-processor Itanium 2 server, according to a company representative. Intel will not sell these products to the general public, but to computer manufacturers, which will then re-brand them as their own or incorporate them into their own products. The Tiger family will come out in the second half of the year. Itanium 2, formerly code-named McKinley, is expected in July.
Easing acceptance for Itanium 2 is a leading obsession at the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company. The chip will go into servers that directly compete against the higher-end Unix machines from Sun Microsystems and IBM. Four-processor Itanium 2 systems will sell for between $20,000 and $72,000.