Advanced Micro Devices beat Intel to the market with the first dual-core x86 server processors, but Intel this week said it will be the first to market with quad-core offerings.
The move to multicore processors will begin hitting the mainstream x86 server and desktop markets later this year, when Intel begins shipping quad-core devices. AMD is not expected to ship a quad-core processor until later in 2007.
During the company's second quarter earnings call Wednesday, Paul Otellini, president and chief executive of Intel, said that quad-core processors for the server and desktop will ship late this year instead of the first quarter of 2007, as had been originally projected.
As previously reported, Intel will use a strategy similar to what it used when it introduced its first dual-core offerings. Intel plans to offer a multichip package that combines two of the recently released Woodcrest Xeon processors to create its first quad-core processor for servers, and two of its dual-core Conroe processors, which will be formally introduced next week, to create a quad-core processor for desktop PCs.
Intel used two single-core Pentium processors in a multichip package to create its first dual-core offering last year, the Pentium D. Intel later in the year introduced dual-core versions of Pentium and Xeon processor that used a more conventional monolithic silicon substrate.
