the itanium processors show a progression in capability. merced was a proof of concept. mckinley dramatically improved the memory hierarchy and allowed itanium to become reasonably competitive. madison, with the shift to a 130 nm process, allowed for enough cache space to overcome the major performance bottlenecks. montecito, with a 90 nm process, allowed for a dual-core implementation and a major improvement in performance per watt. montvale added three new features: core-level lockstep, demand-based switching and front-side bus frequency of up to 667 mhz.