Next month, it'll be two years since AMD introduced its Opteron processor and AMD64 platform, extending the ubiquitous x86 instruction set from 32- to 64-bit computing. Yesterday Intel Corp. kicked off its spring Developer Forum in San Francisco by basically saying, "64-bit? We'll take it from here," announcing a slew of 64-bit-enabled desktop and server processors and hosting Microsoft's announcement that the long-awaited x64 Editions of Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003 will ship within one month.

Last week, Intel launched the Pentium 4 630 (3.0GHz) through 660 (3.6GHz) and 3.73GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition CPUs, all with Extended Memory 64 Technology. Yesterday, Pat Gelsinger, senior VP and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, said in his keynote address that EM64T would account for more than half of Intel's client and virtually all of its server CPU shipments by the end of this year.

Ramping up almost as quickly as EM64T will be dual- and multicore processor designs, led by the dual-core Pentium 4 formerly codenamed "Smithfield" -- due in the second quarter of 2005 under the new name Pentium D. The Pentium D 820 (2.8GHz), 830 (3.0GHz), and 840 (3.2GHz) will contain two 90-nanometer-process "Prescott" cores, each with 1MB of Level 2 cache, in a single die, using the same 800MHz front-side bus and LGA775 socket as today's Pentium 4s. These are relatively bulky 230-million-transistor chips, with a die size of 206mm square.

The Pentium D will not support Intel's Hyper-Threading Technology, but a dual-core Pentium Extreme Edition -- also dropping the 4 and running at 3.2GHz -- will, letting that CPU process four software threads simultaneously. In the first quarter of 2006, the "Smithfield" design will give way to a 65-nanometer-process successor, dubbed "Presler," with two separate dies or pieces of silicon including 2MB of L2 cache for each core.

While Intel will primarily pitch its dual-core processors as superior multitaskers rather than speed champs, Gelsinger told attendees that the drive for greater parallelism along with higher clock rates will boost CPU performance tenfold between 2005 and 2008, with mainstream desktops handling eight and mainstream servers handling 32 threads by the end of the decade. In the shorter term, Microsoft's Platforms Group vice president Jim Allchin said 64-bit Windows will run native 64-bit applications at least 35 percent faster than their 32-bit predecessors, with some 32-bit programs gaining 15 to 30 percent (but most more like 5 percent) in performance.

Accelerating the Enterprise

For laptop shoppers, Intel has already promised a dual-core, 65-nanometer-process "Yonah" heir to today's 90-nanometer Pentium M for early 2006. Dual-core versions of the Xeon DP for dual-processor servers and workstations and Xeon MP for four-way and higher servers are also scheduled for the first quarter of '06. And despite the rapid move to 64-bit x86, Intel has a multicore roadmap for its proprietary 64-bit platform, the Itanium enterprise-server processor, beginning with a dual-core, four-thread "Montecito" chip later this year.

Also in 2005, both Intel's Itanium and desktop lines will get Intel Virtualization Technology -- formerly codenamed "Vanderpool," it implements the popular server scheme of running multiple operating systems and applications in independent partitions -- and Intel Active Management Technology, which helps IT managers remotely monitor and repair a variety of system and security issues. An office-desktop platform dubbed "Lyndon" will bring these features to Pentium 4 6xx and Pentium D systems using the 945/955 chipset. Intel Virtualization Technology will reach the mobile and Xeon platforms in 2006.