Intel to Share Next-Gen Poulson CPU Details

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.