Intel plans to build a part called an integrated memory controller - which moves information between the microprocessor and the computer's memory - directly into the processor itself. The result is a processor that helps pull up data and perform calculations faster. Other features boost the ability to handle video and sound files, and share work among computers.

Because of this and other tweaks, Intel said its new design will triple the speed at which data can be written to memory or read back, compared to previous generations.

Although AMD has had a memory-controlling chip on the market since 2003, new processors using the design were delayed and didn't catch on with customers. Intel's move is an admission that its smaller rival nailed a key design feature before it slipped into a severe financial slump.

Intel showed off the new blueprint, known as a microarchitecture and code-named Nehalem, for its chips at a developers conference earlier this week in San Francisco.

Though some of the details were already known, the unveiling represented another demonstration of Intel's advantage over AMD in cranking out new chip designs once every two years, a factor that helped send down AMD's stock price this week.

AMD has racked up $5 billion in losses during the past 18 months and last month replaced Hector Ruiz, who had been running AMD for six years, with Dirk Meyer.

The new chip, named Core i7, may help Intel CEO Paul Otellini increase sales of more-profitable processors for the servers that run corporate databases and Web sites. Intel's most expensive server chips sell for $3,157 each, compared with $1,499 for the most costly desktop part.

A computer equipped with the new product is able to render animated images twice as quickly as one with older chips.

Microprocessors run software in computers and use memory chips to store data while they make calculations.

By building the memory-controller function into the processor, AMD's chips had been able to run databases and Web sites faster.