Sources close to Intel's plans have said that the first workstation and server systems using its 64-bit Merced Itanium chip are not now expected to hit the streets until October next year. It was hoped that some systems would be on sale by August of next year, but our source said that a more realistic assessment is now October. The reason for the delay -- if it is indeed a delay -- is because hardware vendors want to stringently test machines before they go out of the door. An Intel representative said that the Merced-Itanium project is on time. Its roadmap shows Merced machines appearing in the second half of next year. Meanwhile, the same source confirmed that Intel's current plans are to make its IA-64 a desktop choice by 2003, by which times the machines will have started to achieve realistic volumes. ®