As the battleground between Advanced Micro Devices
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
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 .