Intel launches Core 2 Duo microprocessors

Intel Corp launched its newest, fastest and most energy-efficient microprocessors, which it calls Core 2 Duos, on Thursday, that are expected to help the world's largest chip maker retake ground lost to smaller competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD).

Unveiling 10 microprocessors, the biggest product revamp in six years, in a gala event that signaled its determination to stem the inroads of rival AMD, Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini said, "The Core 2 Duo processors are simply the best processors in the world,'' while addressing hundreds of computer-makers, industry analysts and reporters gathered inside a tent the size of a football field.

The Core 2 Duo microprocessors, which are being disclosed gradually over the next month, are Intel's first desktop and mobile chips to feature a blueprint designed to deliver significantly better performance while requiring less power and kicking off less heat, a feature that is increasingly significant in extending the battery life of laptops and lessening electric bills in homes and offices.

The chips reach at a time when Intel's only serious rival, AMD, has made giant market share inroads. In a move likely to put more pressure on AMD and result in lower prices for consumers, on Thursday, Santa Clara-based Intel also axed prices as much as 61% on some of its older chips.

Although Intel still dominates the microprocessor industry to a degree that most firms would envy, but AMD has about doubled its share of global sales in the past two years, going from 8.5% in the first quarter of 2004 to 16.2% in the first three months of this year, according to research firm International Data Corp.

And over the past year, Intel has lost nearly 5% points of market share to rival AMD, thanks to a raft of products that many reviewers have said were faster and less expensive to run than Pentium 4 processors, which Intel introduced in 2000.

Intel's modest design, which delivers as much as 40% better performance while consuming as much as 40% fewer watts than the previous generation, represents a potent weapon as it tries to close an advantage that AMD has enjoyed for three years.

“It is really a dramatic shift in terms of their competitive position, and not a minute too soon." CEO Otellini acknowledged that the company's old design, or micro-architecture, struggled to compete against AMD's offerings. He promised that Intel would develop new designs more frequently than it has in the past.

However, AMD executives said they were not impressed.

“AMD is now quite accustomed to Intel reacting and attempting to follow our lead," AMD vice president Patrick Moorhead wrote in an e-mail on Thursday afternoon.