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The article reports on the effort of Intel Corp. to create a new chip architecture, a replacement for the circuitry that underpins its entire x86 product line, that would both increase performance and cut power consumption in the U.S. According to Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner, the new architecture will allow chips such as Intel’s dual-core Woodcrest server processor, to offer a 35 percent reduction in power consumption with an 80 percent bump in performance over the current Xeon DP processor. The author also discusses the factors contributing to processor performance as well as for power consumption.

Intel Corp.'s advertising budget for its Centrino chip set dwarfs its competitors' budgets. To that end, in separate attacks against Intel, Atheros Communications Inc. and Broadcom Corp. each introduced new wireless chip sets last week that include technology Intel does not yet offer. Broadcom's new chips will save power so that a notebook running an Intel Pentium M processor and a Broadcom wireless radio will last 20 minutes longer than a notebook running an Intel Centrino wireless chip set, officials said. The chip set incorporates a Pentium M processor and a wireless radio from Philips Electronics N.V. Customers who want to support 802.11a or 802.11g have the option of buying a Pentium M processor and a radio from a third party, such as Broadcom or Atheros. Intel officials declined to divulge the marketing budget for Centrino.