Santa Clara (CA) – Intel continues to speed down the 45 nm path, shipping dozens of millions of processors before AMD will get its first 45 nm CPU into customer hands. While AMD wanted the 45 nm manufacturing process to be a technology the company can close the gap to Intel, it now seems that Intel is actually improving its already existing big advantage.

According to Intel CEO Paul Otellini, Intel will be shipping its 100 millionth 45 nm processor before the end of the year, which means that Intel is currently cranking out more than 10 million 45 nm chips per month. The company had shipped about 8 million 45 nm processor at the end of the first quarter of this year. Otellini noted that yields of the 45 nm production are ahead of 65 nm yields at the same time of its life cycle. The company expects to reach the crossover point at which it will produce more 45 nm than 65 nm processors during the current quarter.

Otellini did not provide additional details which 45 nm processors are behind the success of this process generation. However, it was clear that much of Intel’s current pace is determined by mobile processors and chipsets, which contributed more than one third to Intel’s Q3 revenue. Atom processor production is still ramping, but the executive noted that shipments are exceeding initial expectations and a sharp increase of shipments is expected for the second half of the year, which apparently will bring more Atom-based notebooks and desktops.

Major product launches for the third quarter include the Centrino 2 platform as well as the Dunnington 6-core Xeon MP server CPU.

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