Intel has just revealed more details concerning its next-generation computer processors. The "Core Microarchitecture" will replace NetBurst based offerings from Intel in the second half of this year trying in an attempt to catch up with AMD, who have undoubtedly won the recent round of chip battles, especially in the area of physical multi-core processors.
"The Intel Core microarchitecture is a milestone in enabling scalable performance and energy efficiency," said Intel Senior Fellow and chief technology officer John Rattner. "Later this year it will fuel new dual–core processors and quad–core processors in 2007 that we expect to deliver industry leading performance and capabilities per watt. People will see systems that can be faster, smaller and quieter with longer battery life and lower electric bills."
In his keynote address at this year"s Intel Developer Forum, Rattner showed how the Conroe desktop processor could provide roughly a 40 percent boost in performance and a 40 percent decrease in power as compared to Intel"s current high–performing Intel® Pentium® D 950 processor. Other notable features in this round of chips from Intel include the ability to process 4 instructions per clock cycle as compared to 3 with Core-Duo chips, smarter L2 cache, and improved data pre-fetch algorithms.
Several technology sites have managed to get time in on the new Intel hardware a full four months before they are expected in the marketplace, and the results look promising. Hexus and Anandtech for example, looked at a new 2.6 GHz Intel "Conroe" desktop processor and compared it to a tweaked dual-core AMD FX-60 processor running at future FX-62 speeds. Obviously Intel trounced the AMD offering in every test Intel allowed them to run, but both sites came to the same conclusion: AMD has something to serious worry about.