Intel to Share Next-Gen Poulson CPU Details

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Itanium is still breathing, it seems. Poulson, which will follow the current Tukwila core, is expected to be released sometime next year, but Intel is apparently ready to share some architectural details now. The processor will integrate eight cores and a total of 3.1 billion transistors on a die that measures 544 mm2, according to the program information released by the ISSCC.

Intel says the on-die cache grows to a combined 50 MB and the processor-to-processor links provide a bandwidth of up to 128 GB/s, while the memory bandwidth is 45 GB/s. The on-die cache seems to a bit smaller than the 54 MB that Intel discussed in the past. We should note that the 32 nm Poulson has a significantly smaller die size than the 65 nm Tukwila, which squeezes four cores in 699 mm2.

ISSCC 2011 opens its doors on February 20 in San Francisco.       

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Douglas Perry
28 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Is this a server processor or the next step after Sandy Bridge?
    Reply
  • BulkZerker
    What they won't tell you is this processor will set you back $1500 O.O
    Reply
  • dgingeri
    50MB of cache.

    32k X 8 l1 cache = 256k
    256k X 8 l2 cache = 2MB
    so the remaining cache is 48MB of l3 cache?? That's freaking huge! These definitely wouldn't be for desktop use. These are server chips.
    Reply
  • leo2kp
    BulkZerkerWhat they won't tell you is this processor will set you back $1500 O.O
    ...which is a bargain for server applications ;)
    Reply
  • one-shot
    BulkZerkerWhat they won't tell you is this processor will set you back $1500 O.O
    I'm sure it will be several times $1500.
    Reply
  • one-shot
    timothyburgher@gmailcomIs this a server processor or the next step after Sandy Bridge?
    No, it is not. Sandy Bridge E series are. They will be very fast. This CPU is different.
    Reply
  • geekapproved
    Ivy Bridge is after Sandy Bridge. Stupid a$$ names if you ask me.
    Reply
  • Itanium processors cost much more than $1500. And Itanium L1/L2 caches are much larger than 256KB/2MB. What, no one here knows or remembers what Itanium is?
    Reply
  • wcooper007
    LoL Itanium is for nothing but special datacenters i wouldnt even put this in the same class as servers this thing runs super computer nodes and things of this nature. It requires a special operating system that runs the itanium instruction set i think they madea server 2003 itanium edition at one point due to it not be a x86 processor so yeah the old ones would set you back 3500 dollars and i dont know much about these new ones. when i left the eval lab at Intel back in 2003 we had tons of these things
    Reply
  • Travis Beane
    gfdsgfdsItanium processors cost much more than $1500. And Itanium L1/L2 caches are much larger than 256KB/2MB. What, no one here knows or remembers what Itanium is?Very big, very expensive and unique chips. Thought x86 was bloated? Itanium uses an EPIC instruction set (explicitly parallel instruction computing) to attempt to achieve a much higher instructions per clock ratio.

    I have absolutely no use for it, but damn, I want one.
    Reply