H2 release for Intel’s next generation of microprocessors

KULIM: Intel Corp will release its next generation microprocessors and core microarchitecture in the second half of 2006, president and chief executive officer Paul Otellini said. 

The microprocessors, codenamed Woodcrest, Conroe and Merom, would be released respectively in June, July, and August. 

“These are 65-nanometer processors designed on Intel’s new core microarchitecture platform,” he said at the launch of the US$40mil Kulim Design and Development Centre, located in the Kulim Hi-Tech Park here.  

The 192,987 sq ft centre – as big as two football fields – will design microprocessors, chipsets, motherboards, server boards and customer application microchips for use in Intel’s products worldwide.  

Paul Otellini

Intel has to date invested close to US$3bil in Malaysia. 

The Woodcrest is for the server market, while the Conroe and Merom are for the desktop and laptop respectively. 

Otellini said the Asian market currently consumed about 45% of the computers produced worldwide. 

“The figure is expected to go up to 50% in the next few years,” he said, adding that the group’s business for the second half of 2006 was expected to improve despite intense competition from rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. 

“We plan to get back our market share over the next six months,” he said. 

On whether Intel would float its memory chip business, Otellini said there was no such consideration. “We are not currently thinking about those kind of things.