The year 2003 in processor form

By Alun Williams

Posted on 23 Dec 2003 at 17:08

The week long event closed with Intel emphasising the future of radio-based, wireless communications Intel backs the renaissance of radio.

'Before I retire I want Intel technology to touch every person in the world every minute of every day,' was the memorable quote from the closing IDF keynote by Pat Gelsinger, Intel's chief technology officer. He talked about Intel's drive to make wireless networking ubiquitous by integrating radios into every processor it shipped.

But September was also a big month for AMD and saw the arrival of the Athlon64, the first x86-based 64-bit desktop. You can read the reviews of the first Athlon64-based machines here.

October

October saw Intel making positive noises about an upturn in the tech market as it announced record profits for the third quarter of 2003 - net income was $1.7 billion, up 85 percent on the last three months and up 142 percent year-on-year. Intel CEO Craig Barrett said that this was due to record unit shipments of microprocessors and chipsets. Many industry watchers feel that these results mark a turning point in the IT market that has been in the doldrums for several years.

The company also demoed its latest 65nm-based manufacturing process.

By contrast, AMD painted a more pessimistic picture with its financial figures. Better news for AMD was that Microsoft released Windows server software for the AMD Athlon 64.

November and December

November included the news of a 'Celeron Centrino' and AMD starting work on a new Dresden Fab for 300mm wafers, but eyes were already looking towards 2004 in anticipation. Specifically, that the Intel Prescott processor was to officially launch 2 February and that its mobile Dothan would debut 16 February.

Other news included Intel starting volume production for an 802.11g flavoured Centrino.

And so we close 2003... with the 64-bit landscape opening before us, the next-gen Pentium fast approaching its launch date and ever-increasing clock speeds and ever-decreasing nanometer manufacturing processes. Stay tuned for 2004...