Apple's Schiller joins Intel's Otellini on stage at IDF [i]

During the brief appearance, Schiller touted Intel's new Core platform and discussed how Apple has been able to innovate with sleek form factors and leverage the Intel Core family of processors across its entire computing product line.

As part of his own speech, Otellini outlined the Intel's plan to accelerate its technology leadership and told thousands of developers and engineers at the conference that advances in silicon technology will deliver new performance breakthroughs in an era of energy-efficient computing.

Otellini also disclosed that Intel will ship the world's first quad-core processors for PCs and high-volume servers in November and provided new details related to Intel's industry-leading 65nm and 45nm manufacturing technologies.

"The industry is going through the most profound shift in decades, moving to an era where performance and energy efficiency are critical in all market segments and all aspects of computing," Otellini said. "The solution begins with the transistor and extends to the chip and platform levels."

Citing recent trends, Otellini showed how processing power is becoming more relevant than ever. The advent of new operating systems, more lifelike games, online video and high- definition video continue to drive the need for more processing power. A single You Tube stream today will hobble a PC from just a few years ago, said Otellini. "As we move to high definition video, users will need eight times greater performance just for encoding."

"More than ever processing power matters, even as the need to reduce heat, extend battery life, and reduce electricity costs in data centers becomes more critical," Otellini added. "Silicon technology is at the heart of the solution. It is how we get there."

Core 2 Duo fastest-ramping product in Intel history

When it comes to performance and energy efficiency, Intel's new Core micro-architecture and flagship Intel Core2 Duo processor have set a new standard for the industry, Otellini said. He showed where Core2 Duo benchmarks led across a wide range of applications and said it was now the fastest-ramping product in the company's history, with 5 million units shipped since it was introduced less than 60 days ago.

"With Core2 Duo we have the best performance, from the thinnest notebook to dual processor servers, and we are very pleased with the way this product is ramping," he said.

Otellini went on to discuss new details around the company's plan for delivering the industry's first quad core processors for PCs and high-volume servers. The first processor, targeted at gamers and content creators, will be shipped in November and be called the Intel Core2 Extreme quad-core processor. It will feature a 70 percent performance improvement over today's Intel Core2 Extreme processor, Otellini said.

Intel's mainstream quad-core processor will be shipped in the first quarter of 2007 and will be called the Intel Core2 Quad processor. For servers, the Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 5300 series brand for dual processor servers will be shipped this year, and a new low-power 50-watt Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor L5310 for blade servers that will be shipped in the first quarter of 2007.