For some time, Intel has been working on "Yamhill," which is a 32-bit chip technology with 64-bit extensions. Most believe "Yamhill" is a 32-bit Xeon server processor with 64-bit capabilities. Intel has repeatedly declined to comment on the technology.

"Intel, for the first time in its history, directly accesses the mid to upper bounds of the enterprise computing market with Itanium 2, has a very strong desktop-replacement and mobile notebook set of offerings and is likely to eventually supply a 64-bit extension of its P4/P5," said analyst Rick Whittington, who wrote the report for American Technology Research.

Whittington was referring to the P4, or the Pentium 4, and P5, or Pentium 5. Code-named Prescott, the Pentium 5 is a next-generation, 90-nm version of the Pentium 4 processor line.

"Any 64-bit variant of P5 not in evidence until 2005," but the "Yamhill" technology "would seem to present the only real challenge to AMD's Athlon 64, which should more or less enjoy the power desktop by itself in H1 2004," according to the report.

AMD will shortly roll out the Athlon 64, which is a desktop version to the 32/64-bit Opteron processor. Opteron is a 64-bit server chip with 32-bit prices.

AMD is banking its fortunes on Opteron. "Opteron, which should be ramping aggressively in late Q4 2003, should have the low-end server market more or less to itself throughout 2004," according to the report. "Capacity limitations at AMD, however, will likely constrain their ability to materially impact Intel."

By: Docmemory
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