Santa Clara (CA) - Intel said on Thursday that it has shipped more than 50 million of its desktop, server and mobile processors with Hyper-Threading (HT) technology since its introduction two years ago.

HT Technology is part of a family of silicon technologies that also include La Grande (security), Vanderpool (virtualization) and Extended Memory 64 technology (memory addressability).

A single Intel processor supporting HT Technology presents itself to newer operating systems and applications as two virtual processors. The processor can work on two sets of tasks simultaneously using resources that otherwise would sit idle, getting more work done in the same amount of time in applications supporting the technology.

At the recent Intel Developer Forum, the company indicated that virtually all of its 32-bit enterprise platforms were shipping with HT technology. Intel also described several multi- and dual-core projects for the server, desktop and mobile market segments, and said it expects to start shipping dual-core processors in 2005.

The company also plans to have its 65 nanometer manufacturing technology process ready in 2005 with volume shipments in 2006.