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NEWS
Hewlett-Packard has speculated recently that it may skip over Intel's Merced chip in lieu of Intel's next generation IA-64 chip, code-named McKinley. These rumors have been around for months now, causing others to speculate that Intel may kill off the Merced in favor of the McKinley processor, with a later release date.

Intel insists that it will be releasing Merced as scheduled. HP contends that Intel may only release Merced as a proof of concept, and then concentrate on making McKinley its real 64-bit chip.

ROB'S OPINION
Intel has been wrestling with this one for a while. HP and Intel worked together to develop the initial Merced, and then a separate group took the Merced design and tweaked it to get the McKinley design. HP is much more confident in the McKinley architecture, but Intel is pushing to get the Merced out there. I have to side with HP on this one. If you've got a better technology ready, go with it.

Intel has had problems keeping the Merced project fully staffed, and the rumors will continue to fly. Intel will probably stick with Merced and release it as planned. The chip will provide a good level of performance and Intel will stick to its plan of bringing out McKinley a year later.

It's hard to change things like this in mid-stream, and I don't expect that Intel will.

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