INTEL, AMD PLAN NEW 64-BIT DESKTOP CPUs.

This article looks at the plans of Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) in the 64-bit desktop processor market in 2005. Intel will make its foray into the 64-bit desktop processor arena by May 2005, with a new line of high-end Pentium 4 central processing units (CPU) based on the company's Extended Memory 64 Technology, according to Bill Kirby, the company's director of desktop marketing and strategic planning. The new product line, which will come with several silicon-level enhancements, including a larger L2 cache, will carry the 64-bit capabilities to its existing 500-series Pentium 4 CPU, as well as to its 300-series budget Celeron D processors. Though Intel expects to offer a top-to-bottom desktop lineup of 64-bit CPU this year, it has no plans to market a 64-bit-capable mobile processor. AMD, which began selling its Athlon 64 desktop CPU in September 2003 and later added the Mobile Athlon 64, is set to launch a new, second-generation 64-bit notebook CPU called the Turion by midyear. AMD plans to roll out its first dual-core desktop processors in the second half of the year. The company does not expect to offer a dual-core mobile CPU this year, however. Intel intends to launch its dual-core desktop processors sometime after midyear, and it expects to begin rolling out mobile products by year's end with a full-scale launch in early 2006.