PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug 22: Intel Corp, seeking to maintain leadership in the market for personal computer microprocessors and looking to expand into new markets, will this week give design details and announce new chips for wireless devices.Executives of the world's biggest chipmaker on Tuesday will spell out the advances in Intel's latest processor designed for desktop PCs and laptops at its Intel Developer Forum in San Jose, Calif. The Pentium 4, which will run at speeds of 1.4 gigahertz, will be available in the fourth quarter and laptop versions sometime after that.Intel's current fastest chip, the Pentium III, runs at 1.13 gigahertz, slightly faster than the speediest from longtime rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The two have been swapping the title of speediest chip-maker since AMD unveiled the Athlon chip last year.At the conference, which will have about 5,000 attendees and 250 technical workshops, Intel will also unveil new chips for cell phones and handheld computers, an important though still nascent market for Intel. As growth in the PC market, at least in the United States, is showing signs of moderating, Intel - which gets 80 per cent of its sales from microprocessors - is seeking to enter new, rapidly growing markets.Santa Clara, Calif-based Intel will also announce a new lineup of Strong ARM chips - powerful, energy-efficient chips often used in cell phones and mobile devices - under a new brand name, an Intel spokesman said.The Pentium 4 chip has 42 million transistors, compared with 26 million in the Pentium III and also 144 new instructions for multimedia, allowing better sound and graphics. Yu said that even at modem connection speeds of 56 kilobits per second, users will notice a marked increase in performance.Initially, Intel will aim the Pentium 4 at consumer enthusiasts, such as video gamers, and at businesses. It is also the entirely first new architecture for a 32-bit chip since the Pentium was introduced in 1995.Also, Intel will announce its Xeon processor running at 1 gigahertz, and which is aimed at powerful computer servers and workstations used for hard-core science, graphics and design applications. It will also give an update on its Itanium processor, Intel's first 64-bit chip.Intel chief executive Craig Barrett will give a speech to developers Tuesday morning, followed by others throughout the week. The conference ends on Thursday. Shares of Intel rose 1-1/2 to close at 72-1/16 in trading on the Nasdaq. Early on Monday, Lehman Bros. analyst Dan Niles raised its earnings per share estimate for 2000 to $1.74 from $1.70 and its 2000 sales forecast to $ 36.0 billion from $35.4 billion. The company's shares have risen 71 percent this year.
