Just a few days after AMD announced the shipment of their Dual Core processor, Intel is up to the challenge by announcing they are going to ship their first Dual Core processor, Pentium Extreme Edition 840 processor, ahead of an official launch, which is expected to take place soon.

“The launch will be in the immediate future,” said Abhi Talwalkar, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group, speaking with reporters at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Taipei. He said Intel’s dual-core announcement was “imminent.”

AMD is likely to be the first with the launch of its dual-core Opteron processors expected on April 21. However, Talwalkar declined to comment on when exactly Intel plans to officially launch the Pentium Extreme Edition 840.

[Source]