Global chip manufacturer Intel announced recently the availability of its next-generation Xeon processors which sport the popular Nehalem microarchitecture found in its consumer Core chips, and is targeted at mission-critical servers at the enterprise level.

Intel on Wednesday released its fastest laptop processor to date, also setting the stage to release its next generation of chips for mainstream laptops.

Intel on Monday said it had starting sampling Nehalem-based chips code-named Jasper Forest, reaching a milestone in its effort to create smaller and power-efficient chip packages.

A year after its launch, Intel is pushing the Nehalem microarchitecture into mainstream PCs with the release of its first Core i5 chip on Tuesday.

Intel will focus on its next generation of smaller and faster chips at a conference next month as it prepares to ship new chips for systems in 2010.

Nvidia on Monday licensed an important technology for its graphics cards to work with Intel's latest Nehalem processors, but friction between the vendors over the processor microarchitecture will continue to linger, an analyst said.

Intel dropped prices of some quad-core desktop processors on Sunday as it gets ready to launch processors based on the new Nehalem chip architecture.

Intel appears ready to deliver, starting next month, new server, laptop and desktop processors based on its new microarchitecture, which offers improved performance.