“Core 2 Duo was a significant leap ahead for us and the industry momentum is very strong. Over five million processors have been shipped in the 60 days following its launch, making it the fastest ever ramp in the history of Intel,” Otellini said to a packed audience.

Offering 35-80% better performance, Core 2 Duo has certainly paved the way for Intel to move ahead. So what’s next? Quad Core processors built on 45nm manufacturing technology.

Quad core coming

Announcing an earlier than expected roll out plan, Otellini disclosed that Intel will ship its first quad-core processors for PC and high-volume servers as early as November this year.

“Set for shipping in Q4, 2006 we are clearly going to accelerate our quad core roadmap. Multi core architecture is the way forward,” he said.

The first processor, targeted at gamers and content creators, will be shipped in November and will be called the Intel Core2 Extreme quad-core processor. It will feature a 70% performance improvement over today’s Intel Core 2 Extreme processor. The company’s mainstream quad-core processor will be shipped in the first quarter of 2007 and will be called the Intel Core2 Quad processor.

“The industry is going through the most profound shift in decades, moving to an era where performance and energy efficiency are critical in all market segments and all aspects of computing. The solution begins with the transistor and extends to the chip and platform levels.”

For servers, the Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 5300 series brand for dual processor servers will be shipped this year, and a new low-power 50-watt Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor L5310 for blade servers that will be shipped in the first quarter of 2007.

“The Core 2 Extreme Quad Core for gamers will be a significant launch for the industry. Over 13 manufacturers including Alienware and Velocity will be rolling out gaming machines with quad core,” Otellini said. “The new set of dual core processors launched and quad core products in the pipeline have certainly put Intel back in top spot,” he added.

Nextgen manufacturing

Last year Intel made a strong move into 65nm manufacturing, ushering in the second generation strained silicon-based manufacturing process. 2H 2007 will see the company make its move into 45nm, expected to deliver another 25% boost in performance. Already 15 products for desktop, notebooks and server segments are under development.

“As of September 2006, we have shipped 40 million units of 65nm products. 45 nm chip production will be supported by three world class manufacturing fabs,” he said.

In order to keep a hold on sustained leadership, Intel not only intends to keep the flow of products steady, but is also focused on introducing newer microarchitectures. “We want sustained leadership in the market and what you will see are new architectures being introduced,’ he said.

In 2006, the company unveiled its core micro architecture based on 65nm manufacturing. In 2008, the 45nm technology will bring in the NEHALEM micro architecture and the GESHER microarchitecture (based on 32nm manufacturing technology) in 2010.

Computing for all

“The industry is going through the most profound shift in decades, moving to an era where performance and energy efficiency are critical in all market segments and all aspects of computing,” Otellini said. “The solution begins with the transistor and extends to the chip and platform levels.”

Citing recent trends, Otellini emphasised that all segments of the market including home and mobility driven segment will benefit from the move towards energy efficient computing.

“More than ever processing power matters, even as the need to reduce heat, extend battery life, and reduce electricity costs in data centers becomes more critical,” he said. “Silicon technology is at the heart of the solution. It is how we get there.”

The notebook market in particular is an area of thrust for Intel, which will see the company introduce its next generation Centrino platform (code named Santa Rosa) in 2007, which will integrate NAND flash memory on the mother board.

The next big “inflection point” for the industry is clearly broadband to go or “carrying broadband Internet with you, especially with WIMAX (802.16e) leaping ahead as an accepted standard and telecom operators committing to it. WIMAX will soon be integrated into the Centrino platform.

A big bite of the Apple Apple made its first ever appearance at IDF, saying that the low power consumption of Intel’s product lines have enthralled the company to shift camps. “The new line up of Apple products have been sporting Intel processors inside and this is just the beginning,” Otellini said. The product line up introduced includes the iMac with Core 2 Duo, the Mac Book Pro for high-end sleek form factor computing, the Mac Mini with Intel Core Duo, and the professional Mac Pro desktop with two Xeon dual core chips. Intel expects the adoption momentum to increase. “We believe our adoption of Intel processors in Apple’s lineup has allowed us to get more aggressive on pricing and also introduce a wider variety of space saving designs,’ said Phil Schiller, Senior VP of World Wide Product Marketing.