The Driving Force behind the Itanium Processor Cartridge Is Electrical Bus Performance for the External System Bus and the Internal

The Itanium processor cartridge is a packaging optimization for electrical and thermal performance in a server environment. The 3-in. × 5-in. cartridge contains the Itanium CPU, up to 4 megabytes of level-3 (L3) cache, an innovative power delivery scheme, and an integrated vapor chamber thermal spreading lid for removing power. Cartridges and a chip set can be ganged electrically by means of a glueless bidirectional, multidrop system bus. Power is delivered through a custom connection with separate voltages for the 0.18-micron CPU and 0.25-micron custom cache devices. An IC serial connection provides access to system management features such as temperature monitoring and cartridge identification information.