The next time Intel Corp, the world’s biggest computer chipmaker, celebrates the success of any technological innovation, its Indian employees will stand up and take the applause. The chipmaker, which has sold 5 million of its new processors (branded Core 2 Duo) within 60 days of launch, has now embarked on an even more ambitious project, backed up by its Indian research team.

The project involves making computer processors (which runs all the functions of a PC) with scores of ‘cores’. A core is that part of a processor which does all the math for it. By adding several ‘cores’ to a computer chip, Intel is trying to make computers faster and more powerful.

So far, the company has got dual-core technology, which silenced naysayers this Wednesday when it announced latest sales figures. This success has also added fresh enthusiasm and expectation to the wait for Intel’s quad chip, which is expected to launch in November. But the real crush will begin post-2010, when multicore chips that Indian engineers are also working on will be launched.

“So we have had dual core, but with multicore, Intel plans to pack several cores — even a hundred — on to a single processor,” Kevin Kahn, Intel senior fellow and director, Communications Technology Lab, Intel Corp, told The Indian Express. “And for the first time, work on this chip is being done in Bangalore as well as Oregon, by our Indian and main design team there,” he said.

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