Fate is continuing to be unkind to Intel's upcoming Itanium processor, codename Tukwila as it has once again has to suffer through a delay. Initially expected to debut in Q4 2008, Tukwila slipped all the way to mid-2009 and now, as we near that deadline, Intel announced that it will start shipping the chip in Q1 2010.

According to Intel, the delay would enable a "greater opportunity to gain share versus proprietary RISC solutions including Sparc and IBM Power." Pictured below, Tukwila is a 65nm-built processor with 2 billion transistors, 30 MB of cache, Multi-Threading support, two integrated memory controllers and a TDP of 130W. Did we mentioned Intel delayed it again?