HP will today release a new Superdome server fitted with twice as many PA-Risc chips as previous models. The system could help companies migrate from the PA Risc architecture to one based on Intel's 64bit Itanium chips.

The processor sockets for the new PA-Risc system are pin-compatible with Intel's Itanium chips, so firms running PA-Risc systems will be able to move to Itanium simply by swapping processors. HP has also announced new 64bit servers, including a single-processor low-cost Itanium system.

The updated Superdome 9000 server uses the new PA8800, which is the first dual-core version of the PA-Risc architecture. Each of these chips contains two PA Risc processors, or cores. The existing Superdome chassis has sockets for 64 processors, so fitting the new dual-core chips means the 64 socket system can actually be fitted with 128 processor cores.

Although dual-core chips are not yet mainstream, experts say they soon will be. IBM's Power4 chip was the first dual-core processor technology to market, and Intel is expected to launch dual-core versions of its chips next year.

HP has also announced two new servers for the low-end of its Integrity range of 64bit Itanium-based systems, including a new entry-level system built from the new low-cost version of the Itanium 2 chip, previously codenamed Deerfield. The Deerfield version operates at 1GHz and has 1.5MB of cache memory, compared with Itanium 2's maximum of 1.5GHz and 6MB of cache.

The new Integrity rx1600 server is a 1U (1.75in-high) rack-mountable system that can be fitted with only one processor.

Thomas Ullrich, HP's director of marketing, said HP is targeting firms that need Itanium systems for software development projects but do not need the full performance of systems fitted with the Itanium 2 processor. "We see this particularly in the Linux community, which is more price sensitive than the one for Windows systems," he said.

The Integrity rx1600 costs from €2,350 (£1,600). Ullrich also described new Deerfield processor options for the rx2600 dual-processor system, priced from €3,695 (£2,500).