Intel's new Core Duo microprocessors, which are
currently selling well in both PCs and Macs, are to be
superseded.
Intel is now launching its more powerful 64-bit Core 2 Duo
range, and these are expected to dominate the Intel part of the
market by the end of the first quarter of 2007.
This is bad news for Intel's main rival, AMD. The company has
had a good run recently, but Core 2 Duo chips could change
that.
Firstly, according to tests conducted in the US, Intel's new
chips are faster than AMD's, and are setting record benchmarks.
Secondly, Intel is doing some brutal price-cutting.
The new chips are aggressively priced, and some old chips are
going to be marketed very cheaply to make room for them.
None of this is unexpected. Computer Weekly described the new
line up of three processor designs - code-named Merom for
notebooks, Conroe for desktops and Woodcrest for servers - last
August. But the speed with which Intel has moved forward is
impressive, particularly in the fast-growing notebook PC
market.
The development started with the Israel-designed Banias (Pentium
M) chip used in the first wireless Centrino notebook platform,
codenamed Carmel, which was launched in 2003. That was replaced by
the Dothan chip and the Sonoma platform in January 2005, then
Sonoma was replaced by the Yonah (Core Duo) chip and the Napa
platform just a year later.
Merom (Core 2 Duo) chips will start to appear in a revised Napa
platform in the next few weeks, and then in the next-generation
Santa Rosa platform early next year.
Companies that want notebook PCs at rock-bottom prices will be
able to buy Sonoma models with Pentium M processors. Though
technically obsolete, these are fine for running Windows 2000 or
XP. Companies that want to invest in the next generation could wait
for Merom/Santa Rosa notebooks running 64-bit Windows Vista.
But since both the platform and the operating system are
unfinished technologies, they probably will not be available before
the end of the financial year - April 2007.
Intel certainly needs a turnaround. On 19 July, it announced
financial results for its latest quarter, and the best headline its
local paper could devise said "not as bad as feared". Intel's sales
fell by 13% to £4.5bn, and profits plunged by 57% from to £480m,
compared with the same quarter last year.
Intel is already "terminating" 1,000 managers and more cuts
could follow.
A new power-efficient AMD-beating 64-bit architecture could
revive the company's fortunes.
Jack Schofield is computer editor at The Guardian