In 1998, after six years of joint work originally foreseen under the ITER engineering design activities (EDA) agreement, a design for ITER had been developed fulfilling all objectives and the cost target adopted by the ITER parties in 1992 at the start of the EDA. While accepting this design, the ITER parties recognized the possibility that they might be unable, for financial reasons, to proceed to the construction of the then foreseen device. The focus of effort in the ITER EDA since 1998 has been the development of a new design to meet revised technical objectives and a cost reduction target of about 50% of the previously accepted cost estimate. The rationale for the choice of parameters of the design has been based largely on system analysis drawing on the design solutions already developed and using the latest physics results and outputs from technology R&D projects. In so doing the joint central team and home teams converge towards a new design which will allow the exploration of a range of burning plasma conditions. The new ITER design, whilst having reduced technical objectives from its predecessor, will nonetheless meet the programmatic objective of providing an integrated demonstration of the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. Background, design features, performance, safety features, and R&D and future perspectives of the ITER design are discussed.