Intel is bringing forward the launch of its quad-core
server and desktop processors to this year.
The company had been expected to launch the chips to boost
processing speeds in the first half of next year. Instead, they
would now first appear in the fourth quarter of this year, said
Intel, as it threw down the gauntlet to smaller rival AMD.
Intel's quad-core Xeon server chip is codenamed Clovertown, and
the desktop version is known as Kentsfield.
Both Intel and AMD already sell dual-core chips – two processing
engines on a single slice of silicon. The quad-core chips consist
of two dual-core chips joined together, but with each package
plugging into a single processor socket.
AMD is expected to launch its first quad-core chips in mid-2007,
but its offering will see all the cores fixed onto a single slice
of silicon, potentially improving performance.
Intel has just posted its second-quarter financial results,
which saw sales and profits well down on the previous year.
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