Dual-core Pentium D headed for May launch

Acer Inc. plans to announce in May an Aspire desktop PC based on Intel Corp.'s dual-core Pentium D processor, the company confirmed Tuesday.

"Currently, it's being planned for launch around (the) second half of May," said Stella Chou, a spokeswoman for Acer in Taipei. Acer will not formally announce the PC until Intel has launched the Pentium D, which is also expected to happen in May, she said.

The Pentium D-based Aspire was mentioned on Monday during a keynote by Abhi Talwalkar, vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Taipei. Acer plans to formally announce the computer and its specifications at the Computex exhibition, which will be held in Taipei from May 31 to June 4.

While Intel has not released a specific date for the introduction of the Pentium D, the company has said it will announce the availability of the chip during the second quarter of 2005. Some observers had interpreted that to mean a June introduction, but Chou said the chip's introduction was always scheduled for May.

The Pentium D will be the second dual-core processor that Intel brings to market. Intel's first dual-core chip, the Pentium Extreme Edition 840, is already shipping in volume to hardware makers and PCs based on the chip will be on sale this month, according to Talwalkar. A Dell Inc. Dimension XPS PC based on the dual-core Pentium Extreme Edition chip was on display at the IDF conference in Taipei.

Intel is not the only chip maker set to announce dual-core processors based on the x86 instruction set. Rival chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is also close to announcing the availability of its first dual-core Opteron chips. That announcement is widely expected to take place on April 21.