San Francisco: High performance desktops that use dual core processors may soon become affordable to more people than is commonly believed. Chip maker Intel Inc., yesterday announced the launch of their new dual-core processor Pentium D along with accompanying 945G chipset that incorporates a number of technologies designed to boost performance.
This is the second desktop dual core processor chip from Intel and comes just a few days ahead of rival AMD’s launch of the Athlon 64x2 dual core PC chip. The previous one was Pentium’s first ever multi-core processor Extreme Edition (EE) launched last month. The new dual-core processors are believed to be far less expensive than the EE chip making it affordable to more people.
The 945 chip set contains Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT) that will allow IT managers to remotely manage workstations even when they are shut down. With AMT one will be able to download software updates onto a PC and even take inventory of their network through a protected part of the technology that is transparent to the user.
The new processor and chip set will be outfitted in business desktops produced by HP, Dell and Lenovo.
HP announced a new entry-level workstation with the technology, besides making it available on already existing models. Their xw4300 workstation will run on both the single-core 600 series and dual-core 800 series Pentium processors. It will run the dual core processor with speeds of up to 3.2GHz, and the single core chip with frequencies ranging between 2.8GHz and 3.8GHz. It will support 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows XP Professional O/S and have 8GB memory plus.
Lenovo’s ThinkCentre A52 and M52 desktops will incorporate the new technology and be available in the next few months. For Lenovo this is the first time they have used Intel’s 64-bit chip in their ThinkCentre line of products.
Dell also released a high performance desktop the Precision 9100 which incorporates the new dual core chip and chip set. It has announced that it will use the new Intel chip also in their Precision 380 workstations, which also feature Intel's P4 EE chip. An enhanced version of their Dimension XPS featuring Intel’s new technology was also rolled out.
According to Gerald Holzhammer, VP, Intel, this dual core processor is “our volume, mainstream dual-core processor”. The company will be shipping around 100,000 units in the next three months and a total of one million units by year end.
They expect the shipment to account for 85 percent of total processors that it supplies for servers by the end of next year; a growth of 100 percent is expected in sales by end of 2007.
Systems that are powered by the Intel dual core processor and chip set will allow users to handle multiple tasks, such as video editing and game play, simultaneously.
