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Hyper-threading involves splitting a program into units that can be executed separately. The benefit - Intel claims - will be seen when running multiple ordinary applications as well as explicitly multi-threaded apps.

Essentially, a single physical processor is viewed logically as a dual processor and executions are optimised accordingly. This can be achieved with Windows XP and Linux, because the operating

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system has to support multi-tasking.

'Just as people multitask to get more done, we expect our PCs to do the same,' said Louis Burns, vice president and general manager of Intel's Desktop Platforms Group. 'Hyper-Threading Technology is a breakthrough computing innovation that helps consumers and business people accomplish more in less time.'

Intel claims potential performance gains of up to 25 per cent with the new technology. An example it gives, for consumers, is being better able to play a realistic PC game while transferring a family photo album onto a DVD, or burn a music CD.

The 3.06GHz Pentium 4 processor is priced at $637, based on 1000-unit quantities.

Check out the PC Pro reviews of desktops featuring the new processor:
Dell Dimension 8250 3.06GHz
Evesham Evolution 3
Hyper-Threading: best thing since sliced thread?