Dual core chip by '06

Intel on Thursday promised that it will come out with the next generation 65 nanometre (nm) technology based 64-bit dual processor for servers, desktops and mobile platforms.

"We plan to start shipping our 65 nm dual core products by the second half of next year," said Patrick P Gelsinger, senior vice president, digital enterprise group.

At the Intel Developer Forum, the company revealed its processor roadmap for 2006 as the company plans to move from an era of enterprise computing to building user-friendly platforms and capabilities. "There is a fundamental shift from mainframe to microprocessors and now to usage-oriented platforms," said Gelsinger.

The company has decided to move forward from its NetBurst micro-architecture which is at the heart of Pentium and Xeon chip families to a more powerful and yet to be named power optimised micro-architecture.

Gelsinger said that the 65 nm based dual core processors like Woodcrest for servers, Conroe for desktops and Merom for mobile platforms will enter production by the third quarter of 2006. "About 70 per cent of our shipment will be dual core processors by the end of next year," he added.

Intel also plans to bring out its ultra low voltage products like laptops which can run on 5 watts, desktop on 65 watts and servers on 80 watts. "Our new Intel micro-architecture will reduce the power consumption and increase performance by 10X," said Gelsinger.

Gone are the days when engineers used to work on how to deliver 1 more Ghz. Now the question is how many features can be delivered and how to build those capabilities. Intel said that the key areas of thrust will be digital health, channel platform, digital enterprise, digital home and mobility.

Speaking on Intel's plans in the storage segment Gelsinger said its architecture and operating system will be leveraged to suit the storage segment.

On market enterprise, he said it will push embedded processors. "Today CIOs are spending 89 per cent of their time and money for maintaining their enterprise and 11 per cent for innovation. This kind of keep-the-business-running (KTBR) budget can increase security vulnerability," said Gelsinger.