Montecito: attack of the 500mm gigantichip

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Montecito is a groundbreaking dual-core Itanium chip from Intel, measuring approximately 500mm square and featuring 24MB of cache with around 1.7 billion transistors. This chip introduces coarse-grained multi-threading and advanced power control, marking a significant evolution in chip design. Performance estimates suggest that Montecito will deliver approximately 1.75 times the performance of the single-core Madison 9M while consuming about 100 watts of power. This innovation sets a new benchmark for future generations of processors.

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hitssquad
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This looks to be a dual-core Itanium. Article from:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20059

MOST PEOPLE DON'T realize it, but Montecito is the first in a new direction of chips for Intel. It is a vast signpost pointing towards what the next few generations of chips will be like, and no one actually can see the forest through the trees. It may do incredibly well, it may outright suck, but it is the first.
Marketing and sales aside, what do we know? It is a monstrously huge chip, about 500mm square, sporting 24MB of cache, all taking 1.7 billion transistors give or take a few million. It will be dual cored, have coarse grained multi-threading, power control unlike anything we have seen before, and more goodies than you can shake a bunny suit at.

The first thing that signals a change is the expected performance numbers. People are bandying numbers about that say it will be in the range of 1.5-2.0x the performance of a single core Madison 9M. Let's split the difference and say it is about 1.75x Madison 9m performance. It will also consume about 100w of power.
 
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