Intel has announced two new Intel Itanium 2 processors both running at 1.66-GHz but now with 667 megahertz (MHz) front side bus (FSB) compared to current offerings of 400-MHz FSB.  The other difference between the two new processors is that one offers 9-MB of cache and the other comes with 6-MB.

The new FSB speed will enable according to Intel up to 10.6 gigabits of data per second to pass from the processor to other system components. In contrast, the current generation 400 MHz FSB transfers 6.4 gigabits of data per second.