In the IT world, the competition has reached unthinkable levels, the proof being the statement wars of the research and development departments which theoretically, are given impossible dead lines that in the end are complied with.

If for the 64 bit processors, the fight between Intel and AMD hasn't been that fierce, the latter offering solutions long before his opponent, the situation is different for the launching of dual-core processors.

Intel announced yesterday that the company intends to launch dual-core chips much earlier than it had been anticipated and hence, the processors will be made public on April 18. All the clues point out that this decision was taken to get ahead of AMD, which announced its processors for April 21.

The tactic of outrunning is not a first on the IT world, the most recent example being the confrontation between Sony and Microsoft for the next gaming console. There, Sony announced the launching of the Playstation 3 on May 16, a few hours before the XBoX.

Coming back to the dual-core battle, Intel 840 Dual Core P4 Extreme Edition will be backed up by the chipset 955X, and this duo will be available in a short time. It seems the dual-core processors will work only with the 955X and 945 chipsets, but Intel will have to find a solution so that other platforms will be compatible with the new chips.

However, Intel will have a rough time in convincing heavy weight users, the gamers, to adopt the dual-core processors, because for now, the chips operate at 3.2 GHz and offer lower performances than a Pentium 4 at 3.8 GHz (single core).