Intel branches out from the Core

Intel's server group was caught moving in the wrong direction several years ago, as AMD proved that server customers wanted to head to 64-bits on the familiar x86 instruction set, not on the brand new one found in the Itanium processor. AMD's Opteron chip also was a hit with its integrated memory controller, Hypertransport interconnects and better power consumption figures. The on-chip memory controller swept data from memory into the processor much faster than Intel's Xeon chip, and the fast chip-to-chip interconnects left AMD better prepared for the arrival of dual-core designs.