Intel to Show Off New Microprocessors

Intel Corp. will unveil new microprocessors, including one for data networking equipment, this month at its conference for software and hardware developers.

The network processor and a related semiconductor that directs information in and out of the guts of networking gear will be based on Intel’s XScale architecture, which it is pushing as a standard in both the wireless and networking industries, Intel spokeswoman Christine Chartier said.

At the Intel Developer Forum, starting Feb. 25 in San Francisco, the company will announce new Xeon processors that are the brains of powerful server computers that serve up Web pages and comprise computer networks.

Executives also will tout Intel’s forthcoming McKinley processor, which is scheduled to go on the market by midyear.

McKinley is the successor of the Itanium processor, Intel’s first chip that crunches data in chunks of 64 bits, compared with the 32 bits for Intel’s Pentium and Xeon chips.