According to DigiTimes, the race to release processors is on. Apparently Intel is pushing the Conroe, Woodcrest and Merom processors out the door as fast as they can in an attempt to snag back some of the market share lost to AMD over the last year.

On Thursday, Intel announced that Woodcrest shipments will start in June, followed by Conroe in July and Merom in August - about a couple of months ahead of previous schedules. This will definitely put additional pressure to motherboard makers, the sources indicated, even though a lot of players are expected to come to Computex showcasing new desktop models based on Intel's new P965 chipset (which supports Conroe). The sources expect the chipset, which is known as a part of this year's Intel entertainment PC platforms for the digital home, to be formally launched on June 7, the second day of Computex, or even earlier.

In an attempt to catch up with the competition, AMD will probably try to move the launch of its AM2 dual-core CPUs from June 6, as previously planned, to about May 23, according to the sources. So far, these processors appear to have only minor chances to take a lead over Conroe, and this raises concerns within the industry about AMD's competitive power, at least, in the second half of this year.