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Intel hails local firms at processor family launch

Semiconductor giant Intel Corp expressed its sincere thanks to Taiwanese motherboard companies for their support in making its latest chip design, the Core i7, a reality.

Intel launched the Core i7 processor family in Taipei yesterday, following its official launch in the US on Monday.

“No product can survive on its own. The ecosystem in Taiwan and the companies at various places on the food chain provide the crucial commitment and timely delivery of products that Intel need to be successful,” Stanley Huang (黃逸松), Intel’s director of advanced technical sales and services in the Asia-Pacific region, said in a speech at the Taipei launch.

“Over 500 system offerings from original equipment manufacturers [OEMs] and over 35 different motherboard offerings will be rolled out in the very near future,” Zane Bell, director of microprocessors at Intel, said at yesterday’s launch.

Huang praised Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), Micro-Star International Corp Ltd (MSI, 微星科技), Elitegroup Computer Systems Co (精英電腦), Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康控股), Gigabyte Technology Co (技嘉科技), CyberLink Corp (訊連科技) and Mitac International Corp (神達) for their contributions.

Releasing the latest shipment figures at yesterday’s launch, Intel said it had already shipped 100,000 units to 70 countries.

There are three Core i7 models: the 3.2GHz Core i7 965 Extreme Edition, priced at US$999, the 2.93GHz Core i7 940 at US$562 and the 2.66GHz Core i7 920 at US$284. They are aimed at high-end personal computer (PC) users, mainstream PC users and users of thin and light notebooks, Bell said.

The i7 central processing unit (CPU) incorporates Intel’s “Turbo Boost” and Hyper-Threading technology and is the only microprocessor featuring 45nm high-k metal gate transistor technology, increasing its efficiency by up to 40 percent, Bell said.

One of the many advantages of the i7 architecture is its overclocking capacity, he said.

Overclocking refers to forcing a computer component to run at a higher clock rate than its default factory setting.

“Intel’s i7 currently holds world records in Super Pi, 3DMark and PCMark [benchmarks],” Bell said.

Bell said Core i7 processors would be of value in applications such as speech recognition and real-time translation, in biological research, particularly in the field of pathology and diagnosis, as well as in motion capture and analysis.

Yesterday also marked Intel’s 40th anniversary.

The company’s top management said some of the monumental investments the company has made in the US since 2001 included US$9 billion in semiconductor fabrication plants and US$1 billion in technology in 2001, and US$2 billion in product investment in 2004.
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