Intel introduces new computer chip
The Silicon Valley chip-making titan said the "quad core" microprocessors it would bring to market in November would increase computing performance by as much as 50% while consuming no more energy than its predecessor.
Intel vice president Pat Gelsinger touted the eagerly anticipated family of chips at the 10th annual Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco.
"Today saw the IDF stage awash in a sea of 65 nanometer silicon as we demonstrated the breadth and depth of our enterprise processor portfolio," Gelsinger said in a statement.
"We also confirmed our commitment to leading and working with the greater high-tech industry in a number of ways to champion true open industry standards that will bring more and more benefits to businesses of all shapes and sizes."
Analysts expected the launch of the beefed-up Intel chips would give it a strong advantage over Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in a softening electronics market.
AMD has downplayed the Intel development as simply a sandwiching of two of the company’s dual-core chips. AMD was working on its own four-processor chip, which it said would have a custom integrated design. AMD also said that it was accelerating the introduction of quad-core chips, which it had hoped to get to market by early next year.
Intel said the chips launched in November would be for business servers and that processors geared for other segments of the market would be rolled out later.
A JP Morgan study expressed concern that while Intel’s chips would enhance performance, they would cost more to make and that "could weigh on its margins" when it came to revenue.
AMD has been eating away at market-leading Intel’s business thanks to less expensive chips.
Separately, Intel partially won a lawsuit against AMD when a federal court judge in the state of Delaware ruled that AMD could not sue Intel there for losses it claimed were due to Intel’s monopolistic machinations in other countries.
AMD had filed the suit in 2005, accusing Intel of abusing its dominant market position, particularly in Germany. The judge set a trial date of April 27, 2009, for outstanding issues in the suit.
Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy told AFP that while the company was pleased that the judge had ruled in their favour, it was premature to talk of victory because US portions of the suit remained.
Rivalry between the two companies has been heating up in a cooling domestic chip market, as US durable goods data showed. Orders for computers fell 9.3% in August after rising 15.2% in July. Analysts attributed the slowing computer sales partly to a delayed release of Microsoft’s new Vista operating system, which is now due early next year.
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