Intel confirmed that quad core processors will hit the shelves in November of this year for their Xeon lineup and Extreme processors.  They will release the main stream desktop quad processor in Q1 of 07 along with a lower power consumption Xeon 5300.  Next year they plan to introduce the first notebook motherboard that makes use of flash memory and 802.11n, code named Santa Rosa.  They also discussed plans to have an 80 – that’s eighty core CPU ready in five years, which I am assuming mean 2012.  Intel is usually better than most companies at making its predictions come true, and on schedule.

So what does this mean for us, if you bought a PowerEdge 2950 already, like me, you should have waited a little longer.  They claim that you will see a 50% boost over the current processors with this new Xeon 5300.  When SCCM 2007 hits the street next year your upgrade path should include new hardware, or you will have to gain even greater patience.  If you bought a new Tablet already, you should have waited, if you bought a new laptop you should have waited.  You should have waited…But if you didn’t enjoy what you have while the rest of us suffer with our old slower CPU’s.

I am still waiting to see what AMD/ATI plan to do to counter all of this.  Intel sat quietly for years but would at least make their plans known.  AMD hasn’t told us anything and without AMD pushing Intel, who will?  Free market depends on competition.  In a recent interview with AMD’s CTO there was no discussion of how AMD will counter this seemingly endless supply of newer and faster processors from Intel.  They (he really) focuses on “Intel’s screw up,” as he calls it and says that the recent CPU’s are just a response to what AMD put out three years ago and they are fixing their crappy product line.  News flash for you Phil, you are getting blown away in every market and unless you stop the bleeding soon it will be a long recovery for you guys.  The only real plans I saw in the interview were to have quad processor server CPU’s in Q3 of 2007, that puts them at least a year behind Intel and based on their goals of having 80 cores on a single CPU in five years, that means at about the same time AMD is releasing their quad core CPU Intel will be introducing their 16 core CPU.  Getting into a new space like phones or getting Apple’s business will probably be about as successful as getting Sun’s business.

Update:  AMD is reportedly readying a new dual core release in November.  Digitimes reports that motherboard manufacturers are preparing to support three new AMD processors code named 4x4 and are socket 1270’s, or dual core CPU’s.

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