Intel Corp.’s president and COO Paul Otellini, who will become the company’s CEO in less than two weeks, said during Intel Spring Analyst Meeting that the company would be shipping multi-core processors that have more than two cores in 2007. The executive also revealed some new details about the company’s roadmap, particularly Intel Xeon-family processor code-named Woodcrest.

Intel’s president and COO Paul Otellini said quad-core microprocessors will be available sometimes in 2007. The initial plans include quad-core products for servers, but eventually the technology may be applied to clients as well. Intel’s arch-rival AMD also indicated similar plans for related timeframe.

The company’s president confirmed the development of multi-core processors, particularly Xeon DP chip named Woodcrest, Xeon MP processor called Whitefield, Itanium MP products code-named Tukwila and Poulson in addition to Itanium DP product internally called Dimona.

The executive also indicated that Intel currently has functioning processors code-named Presler, Dempsey and Paxville, which are intended for desktop, 2-way and MP servers respectively. The Presler and Dempsey are produced using 65nm process technology, whereas the Paxville is made using 90nm fabrication process. The claim indicates that Intel is in position to start sales of the mentioned chips in the first half of 2006. Intel will also supply for revenue its dual-core Intel Pentium M processor code-named Yonah as well as Intel Itanium 2 chips named Montecito and Millington in the second half of  2005.

More than one processing engine per central processing units allows CPU to handle more operations at the same time, which is important nowadays, as both client and server computers tend to run multiple software applications at the same time.

According to Intel’s estimations, by the end of 2007 all of the server processors the company will ship at that time will be either dual- or multi-core products, whereas in the performance desktop and performance notebook segments shipments of dual-core chips will account for more than 90%.