'Two brained' chips to boost PC performance

Computer chips that perform calculations using identical twin processing "cores" have gone on sale in the US.

Microchip maker Intel had been expected to officially launch its Extreme Edition Pentium 4 processor range, featuring dual-core technology, on 20 April. But it announced that several US PC makers had begun selling the chips a couple of days early, on Monday 18 April. This is partly to ensure that the processor range is launched ahead of arch industry rival Advanced Micro Devices, which is expected to unveil its own brand of dual-core chips on 21 April.

Chips with two identical processing cores run faster than single-core processors by dividing calculations into parts and tackling them simultaneously. "Today is a historic date for the computer industry as PCs begin having 'two brains' instead of one," said Don MacDonald, vice president of Intel's Digital Home Group.

The first Extreme Edition Pentium 4 processors will run at 3.2GHz, meaning they can carry out 3.2 billion simple operations every second. This is slower than the fastest single core chips available from Intel, which run at 3.7GHz. But the company says the overall performance of the dual-core chips is better.