By Duncan Martell, Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO, (Aug. 23) - Intel Corp. said on Tuesday it is combining its desktop and notebook microprocessor architectures, as the world`s largest chipmaker shifts its focus to power efficiency from raw speed.

Such performance is key for small, mobile devices as well as computers in data centers eager to cram more chips into smaller spaces. Intel also disclosed plans to deliver, by the end of the decade, chips that consume half a watt of electricity, compared with five watts in current notebook PCs.

The shift in Intel`s strategy comes as it faces the stiffest-ever competition from its smaller rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Intel in the past has focused on making chips that run at ever higher clock speeds, which are now measured in gigahertz, but its top goal is now making chips with a higher performance per watt.

Intel also plans to start selling three new versions of lower-power-consuming chips in the second half of 2005, said Intel President and Chief Operating Officer Paul Otellini at Intel Developer Forum, a technology conference.

Otellini also said that, following the dot-com bust in late 2000 and the tech recession that followed, growth in the technology industry is back. After the bubble burst, many pundits questioned whether the heady growth of technology from the late 1960s to 2000 had at last come to an end.

``Rumors of the death of technology, I think, were greatly exaggerated. Growth in our industry is clearly back,`` Otellini said, pointing to healthy demand in consumer, corporate and emerging markets.

The chips code-named Woodcrest will be aimed at the computer server market, those code-named Conroe will be aimed at the desktop PC market, and Merom is designed for the notebook PC market, Otellini said. All will be made using Intel`s 65 nanometer chip-making technology, its latest.

The chips that Otellini announced on Tuesday are so-called x86 chips, which are industry standard microprocessors and are the brains of PCs. They are also dual-core chips, which essentially means two chips in one.

Otellini declined to name the new architecture, which is a combination of its NetBurst architecture used in its desktop and server processors and its Banias mobile microarchitectures.

The chips will be able to handle 64 bits of data at once, twice the standard of current x86 chips, which is 32 bits.

Otellini made no immediate mention of Itanium, a line of high-end processors for which Intel had high hopes when it was first announced. Intel has invested billions of dollars in its development, but so far the sales of Itanium have been less than what Intel had initially hoped for.

He said after his speech that Intel would outline more Itanium plans on Wednesday.

AMD took out full-page ads in newspapers on Tuesday, challenging Intel to a ``dual-core dual,`` pitting the performance of AMD`s dual-core Opteron against Intel`s own processors.

Asked in a question and answering session following his keynote whether Intel would accept the challenge, Otellini said: ``I`ve always thought companies and products are best judged in the marketplace.``

But one analyst said that AMD`s current strength could be short-lived, because AMD has historically been competitive with Intel when its larger rival is in transition from an older microarchitecture to a new one, which is now the case.

``The only time you announce a challenge is when you`re ahead but that probably will not be the case this time next year,`` said David Wu, an analyst at Global Crown Capital.

08-23-05 17:05 EDT