14 DAY TRIAL // The semiconductor company has recently announced that starting early next year it will launch the first quad-core type processors, which are to be included in servers. Until that day comes, Intel thinks it will distribute over 60 million dual-core processors. Should these estimates prove to be real, they will account for about a quarter of Intel chip-sales this year, says chief technology officer Justin Rattner.
The new processor, named Clovertown, will include four cores in a single package, and will enable computers to process data in less time or run more applications simultaneously, while using less power than a single-core processor. Although the chip was presented while working in only two versions out of the first four which are to be produced, it wasn't clear if all four cores are on a single die, or if Clovertown would use two dual-core chips stuck together.
Having cores on the same die is more efficient since they can more easily exchange information and share resources. Still, it is known that the chip will be sold in servers with sockets for two processors, meaning the computers could have as many as eight cores for processing data.