Intel to focus on performance per Watt

Within two weeks Paul Otelline, Intel's CEO, will present the company's new processor architecture at the IDF. The first processors based on this architecture are planned for the second half of 2006 and it will mean the end of the Pentium 4 NetBurst architecture which was introduced in 2000.

The NetBurst architecture aimed at achieving higher performance by increasing the clock speed. However, increased clockspeeds generally means increase power consumption and more heat so Intel decided to focus on processors that use less power, just like the popular mobile Pentium M processor.

Bill Calder, an Intel spokesman, says the company has put a big emphasis on the performance per Watt. Apple has seen Intel's roadmaps for the future and this was one of the reasons why they have switched to Intel processors. They said Intel's performance per Watt for the future looks a lot more impressive than IBM's PowerPC offerings.

Intel is still quite quiet about its upcoming next-generation architecture but analysts believe the chip giant has designed it so it will be quite easy to scale from two to four to even eight cores on a single chip.

More details will follow on August 23 from the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco.

Source: WSJ