As the battleground between Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) gets ever hotter, each company continues to try to one-up the other with innovative new processors. In an effort to maintain an edge in the fight, Intel just launched a three-pronged offensive by announcing a trio of new chips that will increase power and efficiency.
At the Intel Developer Forum, a technology conference, Intel President and Chief Operating Officer Paul Otellini announced that the chips will each target different segments of the market. The chip code-named "Woodcrest" is aimed at the server market, while "Conroe" is slated for the desktop PC market, and "Merom" is directed toward notebook PCs. All of the chips will be made using Intel's cutting-edge 65 nanometer process technology.
In addition to being very powerful, what really makes the three new chips unique is their emphasis on electricity conservation. Traditionally, to increase power in chips, efficiency had to be sacrificed. But Otellini is planning on taking advantage of the new chips' dual-core architecture to deliver increased power while also conserving energy.
IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) beat AMD and Intel to the market with dual-core processors, but AMD's performance with such processors has generally been better. And now Intel's three prospective chips represent a serious counter-offensive and give the company a chance to even the score. Perhaps the announcement of these chips can even be seen as a response to AMD's desire to challenge Intel. Regardless of whether Intel will actually take up AMD's offer, these processors show that Intel is not yet ready to concede anything to AMD.
Otellini also mentioned that Intel has projects in the works that contain four or more computing cores per chip. If such research proves fruitful, Intel may be able to regain its traditional role as a trailblazer and a trendsetter, in addition to simply being the dominant market player.
Tarek Sultani is a freelance journalist. He owns options in Sun Microsystems. Feel free to comment on this article by emailing him at [email protected] . The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
