Intel to turn tables on AMD on desktop front

2006 WILL BE quite the interesting year on the desktop CPU front, with the year starting out firmly in AMD's grasp, and ending in Intel's. If both sides execute on their CPU roadmaps, and that is a huge if we believe it will be a fight to the end with Intel having the lead by at least a hair when all is said and done.

Let's look at the players in some detail. On the one hand we have Intel with the Pentium line of indeterminable numbering, and AMD with the line of now meaningless numbering. The year looks to start on a low in the nomenclature category, and get lower as it progresses. Whoopee! Either way, we are going to start out the year with a Pentium 4 3.46GHz/1066/4MB on the Intel side, and an Athlon X2 at 2.6GHz.

In late Q1 or early Q2, we will see AMD update its line to the 90nm F-Step (FS) cores. These will bring two major things to the desktop, DDR2 and lower power consumption. It does add a lot more besides, a new socket, faster HT, improved cores, and other more server oriented features, but the two listed are the most important for the desktop. We'll leave server parts for a different day.