Intel's quad-core (4 full execution cores) processors known as 'Kentsfield' and 'Clovertown' could ship before the end of the year instead of the first quarter of 2007. After a disappointing Q2 FY2006 results, Intel said it was pushing the launch of its first quad-core processors for high-end desktops and server earlier into the fourth quarter of 2006.

Mansfield is expected to ship in a multi-chip package in order to avoid low yields due to huge die sizes. Clovertown, the server version of the quad-core, is expected to be pin-compatible with the 'Woodcrest' dual-core Xeon DP 5100 family of server chip the company launched earlier. Clovertown is believed to have a TDP of 120W. Official specs of the quad-core CPUs have not been released by the Intel.

The company also said its upcoming Xeon MP 7100 series server processor, Tulsa, was already shipping to server vendors in preparation for its launch.

The figures are in and looks like Apple's ears are still ringing from busy cash register action. The Company posted revenue of $4.37 billion and a net quarterly profit of $472 million, or $.54 per diluted share for the fiscal 2006 third quarter. Last year's figure for the same quarter were revenue of $3.52 billion and a net profit of $320 million, or $.37 per diluted share. We did the math and that comes to a 30.3% gross margin (up from 29.7%).

If you're wondering where all the money came from, Apple shipped 1,327,000 Macintosh computers and 8,111,000 iPods during the said quarter which is a 12% growth in Macs and 32% growth in iPods year-over-year. Looks like every one's happy over at Apple.

Â?WeÂ?re very pleased to report the second highest quarterly sales and earnings in AppleÂ?s history, resulting in year-over-year revenue growth of 24 percent and earnings growth of 48 percent,Â? said Peter Oppenheimer, AppleÂ?s CFO. Â?Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, we expect revenue of about $4.5 to $4.6 billion.

Another happy guy is Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Â?WeÂ?re thrilled with the growth of our Mac business, and especially that over 75 percent of the Macs sold during the quarter used Intel processors. This is the smoothest and most successful transition that any of us have ever experienced," he said. Â?In addition, iPod continued to earn a US market share of over 75 percent and we are extremely excited about future iPod products in our pipeline.Â?

It has been rumored that Apple will be coming up with Macs carrying Intel's Conroe Core 2 Duo. If this turns out to be true, future Mac upgraders may have to choose between the current Conroes (Conroe E6000 series) and the upcoming Conroe E4xxx models, the two being different in FSB speed.

The E6000 series have either 2MB or 4MB of L2, running over a 1066MHz FSB. The upcoming E4300 Conroe will support only an 800MHz clock, with 2MB of L2 and clocking in at 1.8GHz - 0.06 notches below E6300's 1.86GHz. It also has no Virtualisation Technology support.

Rumors circulated that Apple was going to introduce a new enclosure for its first Intel-based Mac Pro desktops. But according to AppleInsider, the Mac Pro will only sport a slightly modified casing from the Power Mac G5. People "in the know" claim the differences between the Mac Pro and Power Mac G5 casings is cosmetic - mainly the addition of a second optical disc drive slot on the face of the Mac Pro.

But the first Mac Pros will most probably ship with the additional optical disc drive slot and bay empty so users can choose to fit it with either a Blu-ray or HD-DVD drive. The other "cosmetic change" is that new Power Mac's power supply has been moved from the base of the unit to somewhere higher. At least that's what AppleInsider sources said.

The team behind [H]Enthusiast tried out three core processors particularly for systems heavy on video editing, music encoding music and manipulating images. The contestants were Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800, Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, and AMD Athlon 64 FX-32.

The mission: Determine real-world benchmarks for functions an average person would perform on a home PC with similar specs.

The tests:

• Ripping a full-length motion picture from a DVD
• EncodingFrank Zappa's Packard Goose to an iPod native .mp4 / AAC file using iTunes
• Running Adobe Photoshop v8 and Driver Heaven's testing suite
• Importing a 2.3GB avi file imported from a camcorder
• Importing an 800MB MiniDV video clip from a video camera using Windows Movie Maker to encode it to the 2.1Mbps bitrate

The findings: When it comes to editing video, manipulating images, or encoding music, the Intel Core 2 Duo and Extreme processors at 2.66GHz outclassed AMDÂ?s Athlon FX and Athlon 64 line of processors.

Apple is on a mission to make a complete transition to the happy and reliable world of Intel processors, they will try to accomplish this by the end of 2006. Among the many now-Intel based Apple babies is the Apple iMac Core Dup 17-inch (which also has a cheaper, Education version). We earlier featured a review of the iMac Education variant which got favorable ratings amidst the downgrades it went through.

Now, the verdict is in for the  Apple iMac Core Duo 17-inch. As you can see, this baby is the bomb, aesthetically speaking. But now powered with Intel processors, a lot of people are expecting great things and improvements from this Apple contraptios. So with that, how did it fare in the review?

Well, according to the said review, Apple has a definite winner with this one. Faring well than other PowerPC and Intel-based Macs in business, media and general-use scenarios, the iMac Core Duo 17-inch is definitely not lagging behind in features and functions. It also mentioned that it's a good move that Apple stuck with the usual sexy design that Apple aficionados have grown to love and appreciate. It is a smooth operator too - runs quietly - with a hardware and operating system that are the most reliable around. The very plush and pretty screen is only a bonus to all that.

It is also praised for its built-in iSight, versatile all-in-one design, easy relocation for a desktop computer, and for being excellent for small workspaces (which we usually suffer from). But, every good machine has a mean bone too, nothing's all peach and roses in this world you know. But, the cons are obviously outweighed by the pros.

The not-so-good side of the iMac is its 8X SuperDrive which would be better had it been a 16X and the fact that it lagged in the iPhoto import speed test. So if you're in the market for a dependable and elegant-looking desktop computer, maybe you oughta consider the iMac Core Duo 17-inch, which has a price tag that ranges from $999-$1,300.

Apple Computer named the dual-core Xeon server processors from Intel to power its next-gen high-performance professional Mac Pro desktops according to AppleInsider. The 64-bit chips Woodcrest (Xeon 5100 series) pack a 4MB L2 cache and run at speeds of up to 3.0GHz on a 1333MHz front-side bus. Apple will offer versions of its upcoming Mac Pro professional desktops that will sport two of the dual core chips. The new systems will also be available in a single processor configuration for a substantially reduced cost.

Aside from being the fastest of Intel's chips suited for a personal computer system, Woodcrest is also the first microprocessors to utilize Intel's "Core" microarchitecture. The architecture's advance cache technology allows one core of a dual-core processor to use the entire memory reservoir while the other core remains idle. It also supports "Smart Memory Access" that hides memory latency and bottlenecks and the "Wide Dynamic Execution," which widens the execution core and allows for more instructions per cycle.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is expected to showcase the new computers along with the debut of the Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" at the annual Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco next month.

In four years time, chipmaker Intel hopes to push the mutli-core chip envelope to 32 cores. But based on documents provided by the proverbial "industry source" the age of the "dozens of cores" may be still some time away. Intel's "Keifer," its first project name for many-core processors, is estimated  to be rolled sometime around 2009/2010. What can the 32-core super chip do for you? Intel expects "Keifer" to be 15x faster its Xeon 5100 processors which zips in at 2 GHz clock speed.

This early Intel is already snooping around for possible competitive products on which it will base the performance requirements of its future multi-core. According to the documents, the company is gearing Keifer to go head to head with Sun's "Niagara" architecture, which is currently available in the "Ultra Sparc T1" processor. Launched in 2005, the T1 is a 1.2 GHz 8-core processor with 3 MB L2 cache and capable of handling a total 32 threads at a peak power of just 72 watts. Sun currently sells the T1 in the T1000 and T2000 server series from around $3500 to just under $30,000.

If you're living on planet Earth, regardless of whether you are a Mac fanatic or not, you most probably have heard of Boot Camp. If you haven't, well, welcome to planet Earth and let me brief you on what you've been missing.

Boot Camp lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on Mac. This ingenious application will burn a CD with all the Mac-specific drivers for Windows - graphics, networking, audio, AirPort wireless, Bluetooth, the Eject key (on Apple keyboards), and brightness control for built-in displays. This CD will also install a Startup Disk control panel for Windows.

Now that you have knowledge on what the community has been buzzing about for a while, here's another news for you and the whole Boot Camp lookers-on as well: Apple has just released a new Boot Camp public beta installer.

Sadly, Apple did not divulge what was new in this release. If you do get to try this out, please be kind enough to share the updates with us all via the comments below.

Needed to run Boot Camp are the following:

• Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later
• Intel-based Mac
• The latest firmware update for your Intel Mac
• A genuine installation disc for Microsoft Windows XP, Service Pack 2, Home or Professional (no multi-disc, upgrade or Media Center versions)
• A blank recordable CD

Download: [Boot Camp public beta installer]

It's the Boot Camp Effect - people preferring a Mac over a PC due to the presence of the Boot Camp software. And it seems like the Boot Camp Effect will be Apple's key to equating or superseding Microsoft's success. This is according to a Piper Jaffray research.

The said report reflected that of 42 near-term PC shoppers, 8.3% are considering to get a Mac computer over a PC because of the Boot Camp software. Analyst Gene Muster wrote that this interest in the Boot Camp-capable Macs will see Apple gaining market share over the next 12 months, which can also see Apple completing its transition to Windows-capable Mac computers fitted with Intel microprocessors.

The release of the new Windows-functional Mac OS, 10.5 Leopard, may lead to a 2007 gain in momentum for the Boot Camp Effect.