The four-core Itanium may be delayed until next year.

The latest news shows that, Intel's quad-core Itanium processor will probably be released and shipped at the beginning of 2009. But Nick Knupffer, the spokesman for Intel, said that everything is going according to plan. Codenamed Tukwila, the quad-core Itanium will be the first processor with as many as 2 billion transistors. Its core area is 699 square millimeters and its integrated circuit scale will be three times as large as the one of the present dual-core Montvale.