Merom tapeout in June, A0 silicon functional!

[K. Eng]

Edit: There was some language confusion. Tapeout refers to finalization of the design for initial prototype manufacturing.

http://www.x86-secret.com/?option=newsd&nid=887

Last information, and not from least, Merom has just been taped-in at the beginning of week! For recall, the manufacture of a CPU passes by the stages of slap-in (finalizations of the design and sends to the fab) and of slap-out (creation of the mask and engraving of the first silicon). Two stages being generally spaced from 4 to 8 weeks. Thus, the first slap-out A0 de Merom should leave the fabs at the end of July and be studied meadows. Indeed, according to cossacks sources', INTEL would currently pay all its attention on Merom and would wish that this last "be clearly and distinctly very largely higher than CPUs competitors"...

x86 secret is generally pretty reliable. Generally Intel takes about 9-12 months to bring a newly taped out processor to market. Given that Merom will be a second generation 65nm part, I think that it is possible that we could see a Merom launch by July/August 2006.

[K. Eng]

The Inquirer confirms that Merom has taped out last month:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24788

Furthermore, the rumor is that the 64-bit compatible Napa chipset has been up and running for months, and that it is pretty stable.

Intel Developer Forum (San Francisco) is coming up August 24-27, if I remember correctly, so perhaps we will be getting some more concrete information on this mysterious processor.

[K. Eng]

Two sources report that Merom is up and working:

http://www.x86-secret.com/?option=newsd&nid=903
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24932

From x86-secret:

Cette semaine, de très nombreux ingénieurs d'Intel vont s'auto congratuler devant de gros magnums de champagne et des jarres de caviar. En effet, après le tape-out de la fin de semaine dernière, le die de Merom A0 a maintenant pu être testé et fonctionne!

From The Inquirer:

INTEL'S NEXT generation mobile core has already taped out, as we reported last week. It works and Intel is happily showing it to its customers as it brings some light to the end of the constipation in Intel's current product range.