Intel Plans Single Brand Name for New Chips

Intel Corp. today plans to unveil a single brand name for a new generation of chips for laptop PCs and desktop machines, calling them the Core 2 Duo.

The company is counting on the chips, which are based on a new design, to regain market share lost to several high-performing chips made by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Intel’s new architecture, dubbed Core, delivers two processors on one chip, driving better performance while consuming less power.

Core 2 Duo will phase out the Pentium 4 brand for desktop processors and the Core Duo for laptop chips. The older brands were based on two different designs. Intel is to start shipping the new chips, code-named Conroe for desktops and Merom for laptops, in the third quarter.

The single architecture will make it easier for software engineers to make programs that run well on both desktop and mobile PCs, according to a news release.

Intel also plans to announce it will name a high-performance processor for computer gamers the Core 2 Extreme.

Intel executives said in March that the Conroe would deliver 40% better performance and consume 40% less power. During the last few years, power efficiency has emerged as a key selling point, as the costs of powering computers and keeping them cool have grown.

The Core 2 Duo uses a manufacturing process that shrinks a chip’s circuitry. That allows Intel to put more transistors on a single chip, lowering manufacturing costs and boosting performance and power efficiency.