Intel has started to open up more about its roadmap (detailed here weeks ago) for successors to the Pentium II, and for the continuation of the IA-32 architecture beyond the launch of IA-64 Merced. With the new designs, expected from 1999 through to 2001, Intel appears to some extent to be making increased efforts to segment the market, and in other ways to downplay the importance of Merced. The successor to the Pentium II is codenamed Foster, and is targeted to hit clock speeds of a gigahertz by late 2000 or early 2001. It will be aimed at workstations and servers, so actually it's a PII Xeon replacement, and it's expected to run some 32-bit apps faster than Merced, so Intel is covering its butt in the event of Merced not being a screamer initially, and/or if IA-64 software is stalled in development. Willamette will come in under Foster, aimed at the $2,000-$3,000 desktop PC and workstation markets, and like Foster will use a new 32-bit microarchitecture. Both chips will be 0.18 micron from the off. Intel also has plans for to fill in the gaps around this little lot and Merced. Tanner, the PII implementation using Katmai 3D technology, will be out early next year, followed by Cascades, the 0.18 micron PII implementation. And the Merced's follow-up, McKinley, is due out at 900 MHz in late 2001. ® Click for more stories