Chip giant Intel's Monday launch of its next-generation, 22-nanometer `Ivy Bridge' processors at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco marked the introduction of the company's 13 new quad-core Core i5 and Core i7 chips particularly aimed at desktops, laptops, and all-in-one systems.

Revealing that PCs equipped with chips from its new `Ivy Bridge' processors, which boast a revolutionary design, will hit the markets as early as this week, Intel displayed a number of "very thin all-in-one designs" from Acer, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and other OEMs in a gallery of Ivy Bridge-based systems.

With the Intel executives expressing the hope that `Ivy Bridge' will apparently be the fastest ramp ever of an Intel product, the company said that the new chips will bring about a two-fold improvement in the graphics processing power as compared to the company's earlier generation of processors.

According to Intel, the `Ivy Bridge' processors are the first processors to be developed with a 3-D structure. As a result, the diminutive fins poking out of the chip's plane have allowed the company to pack more `transistors', or working parts, into the same available space; thereby making the chips smaller, faster as well as more energy-efficient.

Noting that Intel's "research on 3D transistors began over 10 years ago, and advancements like this don't come easily," the chip-maker's CEO Paul Otellini said that the launch of the `Ivy Bridge' chip is an indication that "our lead over the rest of the industry continues to grow, giving us product advantages in power, performance and cost."