Despite a history of lacklustre sales and product delays, Intel's beleaguered 64bit Itanium processor will finally turn the corner, with the imminent release of a new version of the chip, codenamed Montecito, driving a significant increase in demand.

That is the view of Pat Gelsinger, head of Intel's digital enterprise group, who argued yesterday (Wednesday) that Montecito will see strong demand from customers when it is released later this year, after being postponed from late 2005. "There is pent up demand in the market, because we're late," he said. "It means we expect an uptick [in demand for Itanium] when it launches."

Gelsinger insisted he had solid ground for such optimism because early orders from manufacturing partners suggest they expect strong demand.

Gelsinger admitted that past performance had not been up to scratch but said there are growing signs that Itanium has matured. "Research firm IDC is now reporting consistent growth for Itanium over the last two years," he said. "I am not happy [with our past performance] and we had too many issues, but we are now seeing mature software, more manufacturers building on it, and it is beginning to ramp."

Gelsinger also suggested Montecito is on track for its revised mid-2006 launch, insisting it will not see a repeat of the circuit problems that caused the initial delay. "We had to do more testing and debugging, but we've taken the steps to fix the circuit issues... and improve our design methodology," he added.