Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) beat Intel to the market with the first dual-core x86 server processors, but Intel this week said it will be the first to market with quad-core offerings.

Intel will begin offering the multicore processors for the mainstream x86 server and desktop markets later this year while AMD is not expected to ship a quad-core processor until later in 2007.

During the company’s second quarter earnings call Wednesday, Paul Otellini, president and chief executive of Intel, said that quad-core processors for the server and desktop will ship late this year instead of the first quarter of 2007, as had been originally projected.

Intel will use a strategy similar to what it used when it introduced its first dual-core offerings. Intel plans to offer a multichip package that combines two of the recently released Woodcrest Xeon processors to create its first quad-core processor for servers, and two of its dual-core Conroe processors, which will be formally introduced next week, to create a quad-core processor for desktop PCs.

Intel used two single-core Pentium processors in a multichip package to create its first dual-core offering last year, the Pentium D. Intel later in the year introduced dual-core versions of Pentium and Xeon processor that used a more conventional monolithic silicon substrate.

AMD, by contrast, has used a monolithic, or what the company calls “native,” implementation on all its dual-core processor offerings. AMD says the company will again use a monolithic design for its first quad-core offerings, which are currently scheduled for mid-year 2007.

Another player on the multichip market is Sun Microsystem which offers a UltraSparc T1 (Niagara) processor. This processor features eight Sparc processor cores in a single chip.for a loan personal private lenderloan about consolidation studentlink purchase add loanloan 401k first home timebank account no loanlink directory loan new addagreements online loanbad credit 1 loan link Map