Intel launched its Core 2 Duo desktop and notebook processors at a party on Thursday, shifting the chip maker into offensive mode as it ratchets up its attack.

Under a white tent at Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, CEO Paul Otellini exhibited a flair for drama when he unveiled the 10 dual-core processors on a stage. “They are the best microprocessors we have ever designed,” Mr. Otellini said on stage. “It’s a revolutionary leap.”

It better be. Facing tough competition from Advanced Micro Devices while cutting costs and staff, Mr. Otellini has had a rocky year. He and Intel investors both expect Core 2 Duo to energize computer sales for Intel customers and fend off AMD, which has taken business away from Intel, particularly in the server market.

Intel is launching five Core 2 Duo desktop processors and five for the laptops. These processors will go into computers for both the business and consumer markets, including the gaming PC segment.

Core 2 Duo processors have received enthusiastic reviews that have pointed out blazing-fast speed, power savings, and advantages in performance over AMD chips.

The Core 2 Duo, along with the dual-core Xeon Intel introduced in June, were designed around a new microarchitecture the company called Core. For the first time, the chip giant unified the design blueprint for server, desktop, and notebook chips. Previously, the microarchitecture for notebook chips was different than the one for engineering desktop and server processors.

Courting Gamers

To demonstrate Core 2 Duo, Intel brought on stage two members of Frag Dolls, a group of seven professional female gamers. The PC gaming market may be small, but courting gamers is crucial for chip companies to show off their technologies. The processors play a key role in how lifelike the game graphics will appear on screen because it takes a lot of processing muscle to make possible all the elements that set the scene of a game.

AMD, which held a gaming PC day earlier in the week, plans to attract gamers with a new Athlon 64 FX processor and will package two of them in what the company called the “4 x 4” initiative, to be launched in the fourth quarter this year, in time for the holiday shopping season.

AMD, based in Sunnyvale, California, also plans to launch new dual-core Opteron, and Athlon and Turion for the mainstream market before the end of this year, said Pat Moorhead, vice president of advanced marketing at AMD.

“We will be, beyond a shadow of doubt, competitive in the mainstream market,” Mr. Moorhead said.

The ATI Question

To boost AMD’s offerings, the company said earlier this week that it plans to pay $5.4 billion for graphics chip developer ATI Technologies of Markham, Canada. AMD executives said they plan to put ATI’s technology into AMD’s processors (see AMD Corrals ATI for $5.4B).

Asked about the pending ATI purchase during a question-and-answer session Thursday, Mr. Otellini would only say that he’s “still evaluating what it means.” In the meantime, word has spread that ATI representatives were asked not to show up at the Intel event, even though there are five computers with ATI graphics cards on display, including one from VooDooPC, headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

The ATI acquisition can open up opportunities for nVidia, a rival graphics chip maker that hasn’t always gotten along with Intel. By working more closely with Intel to make sure its graphics products work well with Intel’s chips, nVidia may get more business from computer makers.

“Intel will want to work closer with nVidia than with AMD,” said Ned Finkle, vice president of strategic marketing of nVidia, based in Santa Clara, California.

The gaming PCs with the Core 2 Duo Extreme are already available.

Desktop PCs with Core 2 Duo will go on sale in early August, while the laptops will arrive later that month. Acer and Dell-owned Alienware are among the companies rolling out computers.

Contact the writer:UWang@RedHerring.com