Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. are jockeying for position as they prepare to roll out dual-core versions of their processors over the course of the year. At its developer forum next week in San Francisco, Intel will make dual-core processing a key theme of the show. Included will be demonstrations of dual-core chips built using the 65-nanometer manufacturing process.
For its part, AMD officials this week said the Sunnyvale, Calif., company will begin rolling out dual-core Athlon 64 processors for desktop PCs in the second half of 2005, after Intel launches dual-core Pentium 4 chips for personal computers. Those processors, code-named "Smithfield," will start shipping later in the first half of the year, according to Frank Spindler, vice president of Intel"s technology programs. Dual-core chips have been around for several years in the Unix space, in IBM"s Power processors and Sun Microsystems Inc."s SPARC chips. However, they will first appear in the x86 world this year. Such chips offer two cores on a single die.