Many attendees had already expected this year's spring Intel Developer Forum (IDF) to be dominated by multi-core products, along with some other features that Intel wants to put into future platforms. However, the overall message that the chip firm placed is undoubtedly clear: it's time to go to 64 bits now, and it's time for multiprocessing on a chip. Seriously.

A total of 15 multi-core CPUs are in the Intel pipeline. All the new CPUs will support the execute disable (XD) bit, Enhanced SpeedStep or Demand Based Switching, as well as EM64T for 64 bit support. I will get straight to the point: Intel has managed to roughly catch up with all the features AMD has been offering for months, such as the NX bit, Cool & Quiet and 64 bit capabilities. This year, virtualization technology and more advanced platforms will be added.

Though AMD might be able to accelerate the clock speeds of 90 nm Athlon 64 processors rather soon, there are two factors that could give Intel a substantial advantage. First, it is ahead in the manufacturing arena, with the 65 nm process likely to be ready at the end of this year. Second, their manufacturing capacity is large enough to make sure dual or multi-core processors will be available in sufficient quantities.

However, some people have a different opinion of Intel's unusual amount of disclosure. They might even call it an information overload, since most people would never be able to memorize all the code names and technical data Intel flooded the audience with. Why did the chip firm change their information strategy in such a radical manner? Did AMD finally wake up the giant? Or might this be one way to try to distract people from the fact that multi-core technology isn't as ready as it should be?

Regardless of the multi-core excitement, the good old single-core processor is not dead yet. AMD will have to stick to it for the time being, and Intel won't replace it all of a sudden either. What we will rather see is a re-branding of products that have already been around. Just think about the Athlon XP that was renamed to Sempron. It is very likely that Intel will eventually drop what we know today as Celeron and create new models with more cache and Hyper Threading from what we know as the Pentium 4.

Intel's former CTO Pat Gelsinger was of course the right person to show off all the upcoming multi-core products.