Intel Madison Itanium set to launch on 30 June

THE MADISON successor to the Itanium 2 processor is set to be launched on the 30th of June, according to sources close to the chip giant.

At launch, the Madison will come in at three speeds, 1.5GHz, 1.4GHz and 1.3GHz. The first of these will have 6MB of cache, the second 4MB of cache, and the third 3MB of cache. This last chip was formerly codenamed Deerfield.

Pricing for the chips is expected to be over $4,200 for the top end Madison, which may have a name change, $2,250 fo rthe 4MB version, and $1,300+ for the 3MB Deerfield chip.

And later in the year, as first revealed in the INQUIRER, Intel will launch a low voltage Itanium 2 at 1.0GHz and with 1.5MB of cache, aimed at the dual processing market. That is likely to cost $750 or so. µ