Intel booms to dual-core - 75% of shipments dual-core by end of 2006

Intel stated today that by the end of 2006 nearly three-quarters of its processor shipments should be dual-core processors. Stephen Smith, VP in Intel's digital enterprise group, said that Intel will start the transition to dual-core processors in the second quarter of this year. Over a two-year time period most of the company's platforms will become dual-core.

In the second quarter of 2005 the company will start shipping dual-core Pentium Extreme Edition and dual-core Pentium D processors. The mobile dual-core processor Yonah is slated for Q1 2006.

Single-core and dual-core offerings will co-exist over the next couple of years, Smith said, with the dual-core offerings representing the high-end of Intel's price-performance curve. By the end of next year, however, dual-core shipments are expected to total 70% of all desktop and mobile processors, and 85% of all server processors. Dual-core processors are a chip with two CPUs.

The first dual-core Xeon and Itanium processors are planned for the last quarter of this year.

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