Seen as a move to regain lost share from rival, Intel Corp, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) has announced it will ship its Quad-Core Opteron processors code-named 'Barcelona' later this summer in both standard and low power versions.

The new processors feature advanced architecture, and qualify as the world's first x86 CPUs to integrate four processing cores on a single silicon die.

'Barcelona' will sport frequencies up to 2.0Ghz at the time of release, though AMD expects to scale higher frequencies in the coming months.

The new processors are engineered to operate within the same thermal envelope as existing Opteron processors. Yet, AMD estimates a performance increase of up to 70 percent on certain database applications, and that of up to 40 percent on certain floating point applications with the new processors.

'Barcelona' Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors are expected to start shipping in August 2007. Systems from AMD platform partners will ship likely in September this year.