Las Vegas (NV) - In one of the more important CES keynote speeches from our vantage point, Intel President/CEO anticipated, along with Paul Otellini formally unveiled its new Core Duo processor - the new brand name for the architecture we've been calling "Yonah" - as we anticipated a few days ago. The CEO also premiered his company's new Centrino Duo brand, and formally launched the Viiv digital home media platform.

Wolfgang Gruener of TG Daily was on hand for Otellini's speech just minutes prior to the filing of this story, and his analysis is forthcoming. For now, here is what we know:

• Otellini only premiered the Core Duo processor, not the single-core Core Solo mentioned in Intel's most recent marketing literature. Core Duo, stated Otellini, promises up to 100 times the performance of the first Pentium, with only one fourth the die size. The company expects to ship up to one million Core Duo processors in the first three weeks of introduction alone.
• Intel estimates that up to 30 million Centrino notebook computers shipped during the last 12 months. So it is a good omen, Otellini estimates, that twice as many Centrino Duo products will be introduced this year, than Centrino products during its initial run. It's worth noting that Otellini's demonstration of streaming content on a Centrino Duo featured Apple's iTunes, not a Microsoft product.
• The first Viiv-branded PCs will include Core Duo models, as well as lower-end systems starting at around $900. The platform consists not only of hardware, but of Intel's own direct download service, effectively bringing Intel into the same market space as Napster, AOL, and if the rumors are correct, Google. Intel announced it has already forged partnerships with NBC Universal for content, and DirecTV for delivery, as well as for its own brand of Viiv box. At this point in time, Intel claims, as many as two million songs, 100,000 music videos, 10,000 TV shows, and 1,000 movies were available for download through the Viiv service. In the TV show category, for instance, are episodes of "Battlestar: Galactica" (the Lorne Greene version, unfortunately) and, for fans of serious sci-fi, the alien invasion classic "Welcome Back, Kotter."

On hand to explain what all these platform deals meant were Morgan Freeman and Danny DeVito, who probably hadn't had this much fun explaining a vernacular to a captive audience since their appearances on "The Electric Company" and "Sesame Street," respectively. Their appearance was unrehearsed, reading from TelePrompTer, situated at such an odd angle that the celebrities couldn't make out the script. At one point, Freeman asked Otellini, impromptu, to explain to him what it was the TelePrompTer was saying.

Stay in touch with TG Daily for further news and analysis of Paul Otellini's speech to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, as well as the other news from CES 2006.

Source : Tom's Hardware US