Intel Corp went on the offensive yesterday, showing off a new design for powerful, energy-efficient processors that it hopes will help it gain back the market share it has lost to its rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Intel, the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, demonstrated its latest chip technology just days after it disclosed it would miss its first-quarter financial targets because of a slowdown in demand and a slight loss in market share.
On Friday, Intel said that first-quarter revenue would be in the range of US$8.7 billion to US$9.1 billion, compared with its previous forecast of US$9.1 billion to US$9.7 billion.
PHOTO: AP
Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, said that chips based on the new design, referred to as the Intel Core Microarchitecture, would begin shipping in the second half of this year.
The new advancement in manufacturing techniques and chip design will give the Intel "the capacity to retake market share," said Paul Otellini, Intel's chief executive, speaking to reporters at the company's semiannual developers' conference.
The company said the new chip for server computers, called Woodcrest, would offer an 80 percent performance improvement and require 35 percent less power; the Conroe chip for desktop computers, which will be released later this year, will offer 40 percent performance improvement and require 40 percent less power. The foundation for the chips is derived from the company's popular Pentium M chip for notebook computers, the company said.
Otellini would not discuss specific business issues because the company is in a quiet period imposed by the SEC before its quarterly earnings report on April 19.
But he said, "these things come in waves," in addressing Intel's ability to win market share.
"We've tended to do best when we've had a new microarchitecture," he said, pointing to the shift from the 486 chip to the Pentium, and from the Pentium III to the Pentium 4.
Intel lost its largest market share in the server computer segment when AMD began offering a dual-core server processor last year called the Opteron, which essentially places two microprocessors on one piece of silicon.
AMD announced on Monday three new server processors in the Opteron line. The new chips, it says, offer 4 to 15 percent faster performance than current Opteron chips without consuming more power.
Henri Richard, executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at AMD, said Intel's problems were its own doing.
"The competition has been failing time and time again," he said. "It was their poor execution and poor product road map that opened up a great opportunity for us."
Otellini said Intel led in 65-nanometer manufacturing, which allows it to producer faster chips more quickly. The company will have four such manufacturing operations up by the end of the year. AMD has said it plans to begin 65-nanometer manufacturing in the second half of this year.
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