San Francisco (CA) - A press conference scheduled for 10 am PST today will set the stage for a few busy days for Intel: The company is expected to announce today the addition of its processors to Sun's x86 server and lineup. Tomorrow, Intel will announce its next-generation wireless chip. Early next week, the company is expected to provide more details on its first 45 nm processors.

The microprocessor industry has seen dramatic market shifts with significant design wins for Intel (Apple) and AMD (Lenovo and Dell) last year. Intel is set to continue that trend today with a "landmark alliance" with Sun Microsystems. Intel and Sun both were never close to each other, but market dynamics and especially the success of AMD are changing minds, apparently: According to a report published by the Wall Street Journal, Intel will be providing x86 processors for Sun servers, which so far have only been available with AMD Opteron processors.

Sun stated in several of its recent quarter reports that its computer systems group has been suffering revenue decreases, which, however, was offset by increasing unit sales of entry-level servers in the x86 segment. The fact that x86 servers are Sun's fastest growing business makes it almost natural conclusion that the company would look for ways - such as Intel's quad-core processors with Clovertown cores - to quickly expand its product line in order to keep existing customers and attract new ones.

According to IDC, Sun Microsystems is currently the fourth largest server vendor worldwide (behind IBM, HP and Dell) with revenues of $1.3 billion and a market share of 10.0%. AMD-based servers accounted for 19.8% of x86 server revenue in the third quarter of last year. However, IDC mentioned that Intel was able to gain x86 market share in Q3 2006 over Q2 2006 for the first time in four years. Intel processors were estimated to hold a 80.2% share of the x86 server market at the time.

Tomorrow, Intel will launch its first Wi-Fi chip that supports the draft-n standard, sources told TG Daily. Code-named "Kedron", the "WiFi Link 4965 AGN". Is the wireless component of Intel's upcoming mobile 965 chipset ("Crestline") and was originally scheduled to be introduced with the new "Santa Rosa" notebook platform, which is expected to debut late in Q2.

Intel is also preparing to provide more details about the progress of its 45 nm manufacturing capability, which will be introduced with the "Penryn" processor in the fourth quarter of this year.

UPDATE: Intel to promote Solaris, Sun to build Intel servers