Intel who could possibly dump the Viiv platform because of a lack of interest by PC manufacturers plans to ship the Nehalem chip in 2008. It said customers will be able to choose from single-core to eight-core versions, which are the equivalent of eight electronic brains on a single chip.Intel also said it plans to add some graphics capability onto the chip. AMD is currently working on a similar design associated with its $5.4 billion acquisition of ATI Technologies last fall.
AMD is facing increased pressure from Intel, which wants to win back market share it’s lost the past three years. To carry out that plan, Intel intends to release several new chip lines through 2010.
Since last summer, Intel has unleashed 40 new microprocessors for desktops, laptops, and servers. AMD began to combine the memory controller with the central processor when the company launched its Opteron server chip.
The processor, which uses so-called direct connect architecture, rejuvenated AMD’s fortunes, helping it dent Intel’s worldwide market share and forcing Intel to admit it made some technological missteps.
AMD now commands 25% of the world’s microprocessor market, up significantly from what it had before it rolled out the Opteron line.
Its encore to Opteron is called Barcelona, which is slated to hit the market by mid-summer. Barcelona is the chipmaker’s first major design refresh in more than three years.
Intel’s plans are “further validation that their current architecture will not be competitive with Barcelona until they make this transition that we showed the industry in 2003,” AMD Vice President Randy Allen said in a prepared statement.
Barcelona will compete with a quad-core processor Intel launched this past November. AMD said its product won’t force customers to make “wholesale infrastructure changes in order to achieve incremental performance gains.”
Last month, AMD warned it won’t meet its previous first-quarter financial targets as it struggles with weaker prices for its microprocessors and supply problems.
“It is becoming obvious that AMD’s only weapon, outside of Barcelona, is price,” wrote Doug Freedman, analyst at American Technology Research.
He projects Intel will recapture market share in the server space – where AMD has hurt Intel the most – and concede less profitable parts of the PC market to AMD.