Intel Corp., the world's largest semiconductor maker, said on Monday it plans to start shipping this week a new chip for servers, aiming to fend off an offensive from rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Intel has said that it would unveil a new processor in the third quarter using a more efficient design -- which it has dubbed the Core Microarchitecture -- that would allow for better performance and lower power consumption.
The new chip is called Xeon and was previously codenamed Woodcrest.
Intel executives have previously said the new chip would deliver an 80 percent gain in performance with a 35 percent reduction in power use.
AMD, once relegated to mimicking advances by its larger rival, has turned the tables in recent years with innovations such as putting two processing cores in a single chip, allowing it to handle multiple tasks more efficiently.
The technological edge has translated into higher market share for AMD in the server market, though Intel still outsells it by a ratio of nearly four to one in desktop PCs and nine to one in laptops.
