Intel unveils new chip in battle against AMD

Intel Corp, the world's biggest semiconductor maker, has showed off a new chip that directly controls the memory in computers, invading one of the last market niches dominated by Advanced Micro Devices Inc.



Intel for the first time is combining the memory and processing functions into a single chip, instead of using two. The result is a processor that helps pull up data and perform calculations faster. Other features boost the ability to handle video and sound files, and share work among computers.



While AMD has had a memory-controlling chip on the market since 2003, new processors using the design were delayed and didn't catch on with customers, analyst David Wu said. California-based Intel will have a performance lead until 2010, he said.



"We don't need to go to the Olympics to know who's won the gold medal," said Wu, who follows chip stocks for Global Crown Capital in San Francisco. "They've got the best microprocessor right now and will have through the end of 2009."



The chip, named Core i7, may help Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini increase sales of more-profitable processors for the servers that run corporate databases and Websites. Intel's most expensive server chips sell for 3,157 U.S. dollars each, compared with 1,499 dollars for the most costly desktop part, Bloomberg News said.



Senior Vice President Patrick Gelsinger was set to demonstrate computers using the chips at the annual Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco yesterday, a spokesman said. More than 5,000 computer and software engineers will attend the show, which ends tomorrow.



AMD's server chips outperform their existing Intel rivals and will be improved by the use of a new manufacturing technique before the end of the year, said John Fruehe, who heads business development for the company's Opteron server line.



The Sunnyvale, California-based company's latest version of the chip, called Barcelona, went on sale at the end of the first quarter of this year, about a year later than planned. The latest release included a fix of a problem that occurred when the chip was first sold last year.



Source: Shanghai Daily/Agencies