HP hands Itanium to Intel

HP has ended its development of the Itanium chip and handed the work back to Intel.

The chip giant has taken over HP's 300-strong Itanium development team, based in Colorado, in a move that brings to an end more than a decade's design collaboration on the troubled chip.

However, HP will still design server chipsets around the Itanium, and the company was keen to stress that the Itanium is still a core part of its server plans.

HP said that it will spend up to $1bn a year for the next three years designing Intel Itanium 2-based HP Integrity servers.

Paul Otellini, Intel president and chief operating officer, explained that the Itanium architecture is the cornerstone in the firm's strategy to attack the $20bn-a-year Risc market segment.

Carly Fiorina, HP chairman and chief executive, added: "As HP and Intel continue to invest in server innovation and Itanium, Integrity servers become a 'must have' competitive weapon to drive customer value for the next decade and beyond."