Monster Montecito spotted on web

Assorted 65nm Intel chippery too

There are processor packages and then there are processor PACKAGES, as a snap-shot of Intel's upcoming dual-core Itanium, 'Montecito' reveals.

The server beast, with its whopper 24MB L3 cache, will be mounted on a package containing stacks of resistors, capacitors and assorted ancillary chipage, and has all the pins at one end, if pictures posted by Japanese website PC Watch are anything to go by.

The photos were taken at a recent briefing conducted by Intel Japan. Also on show was 'Yonah', Q4's 65nm Pentium M, along with 'Presler', the 65nm follow-up to the dual-core Pentium D. Intel was also showing 'Dempsey', the 65nm Xeon DP. Dempsey and Presler are both due to ship in Q1 2006.

Intel has already confirmed that Presler will actually be two single-core parts - which will ship individually as 'Cedar Mill' - mounted in a single package. The photos reveal the same is true of Dempsey, though the Pentium D - aka 'Smithfield' - and Yonah are both true dual-core dies.

Presler's dies don't appear to be much smaller than half a Smithfield, but since each 65nm die contains 2MB of L2 cache, for a total of 4MB to Smithfield's 2MB, it's clear how Intel is using the extra die real estate the shift to 65nm will bring. ®

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