Intel hurries next-generation chips

Otellini said Intel would usher in its new Core microarchitecture line starting with its Woodcrest chip for servers in June, its Conroe chip for desktops in July and its Merom chip for notebooks in August, according to a report by IDG News

By the third quarter of this year, Intel will be making more chips with 65-nm geometry than 90 nm, the Intel boss explained. And by 2007, he said the company will build a 45-nm version of the Core chip family called Penryn.

The report goes on to say the chipmaker will upgrade its microarchitecture in a chip called Nehalem by 2008, and then move to 32-nm design by 2009 — shrinking that chip line into a design called Nehalem-C.

In 2010, the company will reportedly upgrade its microarchitecture once again for a future line of chips called Gesher.

One company expected to make extensive use of all three of Intel's new Core-based chips in its own designs is Apple.

it's widely believed that the Mac maker has selected Conroe — a chip Intel says is 40 percent faster than the Pentium D960 — to power its first line of Intel-based PowerMacs later this year.