On the eve of WinHEC in Seattle, Intel organised a briefing at one of its Oregon campuses to talk about energy efficiency.

The timing for the event is suspect, as AMD last week unveiled its latest line of low power desktop processors.

23 May 2006

Intel was beating its old platform drum: computers are about more than just raw performance. A good computer also offers wireless networking (Centrino) management functionalities (vPro) or entertainment features (Viiv). Similarly, a chipmaker can cut back on power usage by making sure that tasks like virus scanning or remote management are performed in a way that is as power efficient as possible.

Power usage hasn't been a big issue in the computer industry, but Intel now is claiming that it really, really has been working on this for years – ever since it launched the Pentium M laptop processor. But the company only last year decided to bring those features over to its server and desktop processor lines.

It's clear that Intel is on the defensive in the processor market. But the company admittedly is on its way back and should be able to soon take back the lead from AMD in terms of raw performance as well as performance per Watt.

The company furthermore has plenty of initiatives in its technology pipeline that do promise to take on power consumption. But the big "Intel power cutting picture" currently isn't very clear.

Intel's Jones Farm Campus - looks about as exiting in reality is it does on this picture

Photo courtesy of Intel

Tags: intel, power, performance per watt