Facing tough competition from AMD, Intel has christened its new chips for desktops and laptops as "Core 2 Duo". Formerly known as Conroe and Merom, the microchips have two processing cores which make them better at handling several tasks at once such as crunching a spreadsheet while playing video. Intel will also launch a new processor aimed at high performance and gaming enthusiasts dubbed "Core 2 Extreme".

Intel says the new "Core 2 Duo" processors are much faster and yet use less power compared to their predecessor such as Pentium 4 processors.
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