Although semiconductor manufacturers make sure that they prepare their roadmaps on time, many times, these theoretical plans are ruined by the problems that occur in the production stage. This also happened to the high-end Montecino processor, whose launch was postponed with up to eight months.

The problem that will stall the scheduled launch of the 2.0GHz/24MB processors seems to be pretty serious, because it has caused a delay until March next year, this being the optimistic version.

However, Intel doesn't seem concerned about this delay, which, according to the company, is caused by the extremely long time required for certifying and obtaining the proper authorizations for a solution that will be used on a very large scale.

Montecino should generate less heat than the Itanium processors, this being possible thanks to a technology that adapts the frequency according to the requirements of the applications running on the system. Montecino will generate the equivalent of 100 watts, while the Itanium processors exceed 130 watts.