Intel Charts New Performance Map

In addition to its vaunted dual-core strategy, Intel said parts of its go-to-market strategy will involve proprietary hardware and software components that rival Advanced Micro Devices neither produces nor has on its road map, an Intel executive told CRN last week.

"It's up to us to point these out and communicate them," said Frank Spindler, vice president of Intel's corporate technology group and director of industry technology programs. "What AMD will likely do is say, 'Well, here's our security feature.' But they don't make chipsets or other components for the platform so I don't think it's the same."

AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif., has been making what many believe to be significant inroads into the server and desktop processor segments traditionally dominated by Intel, Santa Clara, Calif.

In particular, AMD has beaten Intel to market with backward-compatible 64-bit technology and both are neck-and-neck on the way to delivering dual-core processors sometime next year.

At the same time, Intel has cut up its old road map over the past few months, canceling its single-core chip plans and saying it will focus on its dual-core strategy.

Spindler also shed more light on several forthcoming Intel technologies, including Vanderpool, which will offer hardware-based system virtualization and boost system performance in digital home and digital office solutions; LaGrande, which will add hardware-based virus and security protection for operating systems and applications; and Active Management, which will be rolled out on a platform-level basis.

Intel's desire to integrate multiple technologies atop its silicon is less a revolutionary effort than it is the first step toward the commoditization of technologies already available in the market, said Matt Kaveney, president of Kelly Communications Systems, Mountainside, N.J. "What Intel's doing now will create more of a standard for the industry. But how fast it's adopted is always another question," Kaveney said.