low-power processors

On Monday, Advanced Micro Devices shipped its latest generation of processors with cloud-computing and dense-computing environments in mind. The new six-core Opteron EE processor, code-named Istanbul, promises increased performance in the same 40-watt ACP power band as previous generations.

Intel Corp.'s push to create and boost new categories of small, cheap Internet-connected devices is taking the world's largest chip maker in some unusual directions.

It's investing in wireless networks, or even buying them outright. It's relying on software that isn't from Microsoft. And it's looking at making processors cheaper and smaller rather than faster and faster.

To Chief Executive Paul Otellini, it's all part of bringing the Internet to new places and people, and computer makers are responding.