The Wall Street Journal has reported in an article that microprocessor giants Intel is due to introduce its much delayed microchip codenamed Montecito.

Montecito would be the first chip in the Itanium chip line to have dual core functionality. The chip could contain as many as 1.7 billion transistors and would be one of the most ambitious products unveiled by the company.

Intel is yet to comment on this latest market rumor.

Montecito has been developed by Intel in cooperation with its partners including Hewlett Packard. It would come with an unusually large amount of built-in memory and will make Itanium more competitive against competing processors from IBM and Sun Microsystems.

The company had said last year that they expected to start mass production of this chip in mid 2006 and the time is perfect for them to launch new assault on their competitors in the market.