Intel Chip Delivery Moving Up?

The Inquirer reports on comments by Intel CEO Paul Otellini at the financial analyst's spring meeting.

According to the article, Intel is planning on delivering Woodcrest (server) in June, Conroe (desktop) in July, and Merom (mobile) in August. Apple is expected to take advantage of these new processors for upcoming designs.

Beyond these expected updates, Intel is aggressively working towards future architectures:

It has large teams working on the next two microarchitectures, he said. Every two years Intel will bring out a new microarchitecture.

This year's processors will start at a 65-nm process and quickly move to 45-nm. All future processors are optimized for performance-per-watt -- one of the features that attracted Apple to Intel's processors.

Of additional interest, Intel also has over 1000 people working on next generation Handheld devices with consumer pricepoints. The goal will be an "always on" architecture consuming only 1/2 of a watt. Apple has no announced plans to again enter the handheld market, but rumors of an Apple tablet or handheld regularly recur.