Haifa R&D work continues to marvel. Intel launched the next-generation Intel Core 2 Duo processors last month.
By AVI KRAWITZintel chip 88 298(photo credit: Courtesy of Intel)
Intel Corp.'s Haifa R&D facility is once again making headlines as the world's largest chipmaker unveiled its latest product, billed as "the world's best processor."
Intel launched the next-generation Intel Core 2 Duo processors last month. They will be installed in consumer and business desktop and laptop personal computers and workstations.
"The Core 2 Duo processors are simply the best in the world," said Paul Otellini, Intel's president and CEO. "Not since Intel introduced the Pentium processor has the industry seen the heart of the computer reinvented like this."
The launch came just one month after Intel unveiled its server-oriented, next-generation microprocessor line, also developed at the Haifa center, which remained unfazed by the barrage of Katyusha rockets.
"Output has not been affected," said Koby Bachar, spokesman for Intel Israel. "The factory is still open, although some of our employees worked from home and connected to our server from there [as a result of the situation]."
Yitshak Apeloig, president of the Haifa Technion, Israel's major science and engineering school, said the city's R&D activity was still functioning.
With international corporations such as Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Phillips all hosting R&D facilities in Haifa, and many being connected to the Technion, Apeloig doesn't believe the conflict will affect their decisions to operate there.
"They are more concerned on a business level about competition from China and India," Apeloig said. "I don't believe the political situation will have an affect, and besides, it's too early to tell."
Meanwhile, as Intel builds a new production facility in Kiryat Gat, which will add to its existing one at that location and its R&D facilities in Jerusalem and Yakum, the Haifa unit continues to turn out innovations being used in a majority of the world's computers.
"Tens of thousands of businesses will sell computers or components based on these processors," the company said of the new processor line.
Code named "Conroe" for the desktop architecture and "Merom" for laptops, the new processors use the also Haifa-developed 65-nanometer silicon process technology, and are believed to provide a 40% increase in performance at 40% greater energy efficiency compared to previous Intel processors.
The new family of products consists of five desktop PC processors tailored for business, home users and enthusiasts such as high-end gamers, and five mobile PC processors designed to suit a mobile lifestyle.
The company claims the new products - the 10 Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Extreme processors - will revolutionize how computers perform, look and consume power, and transform the way people use them.
