THE CUTTING EDGE/TECHNOLOGY NEWS : Intel Introduces New Merced Server Chip

Also this week, Intel unveiled its new Merced chip, a product the company is counting on to push it into the market for high-powered microprocessors that run servers, the machines that control computer networks. That market is dominated by Sun Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and others.

Intel demonstrated a Merced running a computer, generating three-dimensional images of swimming sharks. The introduction has been delayed because of technical matters. The chip is expected to hit the market in the middle of next year.

The market for servers using Merced and other advanced chips is enormous, Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett said. The world now has only 4% of the servers it will need to run the Internet and associated networks in 2005, he said.

Intel said it was especially pleased because it got two operating systems running on Merced--Microsoft Corp.’s Windows NT and the Linux system--just two weeks after the first chips rolled off the assembly line.