Dual core notebooks go main stream. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Intel, which has been facing increasing competition from rival chip maker AMD, introduced the Centrino Duo processors for notebook computers at the beginning of the year. The idea…says Intel's Jodi Geniesse…

"What it does is, it brings two brains, two CPUs to your computer. So it gives you great multi-tasking capability and a great performance boost. We're seeing over 70 percent performance gains on these new products."

With two processors on a single chip…computers don't get sluggish so easily when you are checking email….while you're watching a movie or editing digital photos…or even video. And prices are beginning to migrate down towards the thousand dollar range for dual core notebooks. With more and more consumers opting to replace desktop computers with notebooks…. Centrino processors which extend battery life and include built in wireless networking capability…have given Intel a big boost. The dual core versions may keep that trend going. What may hurt sales, is Microsoft's delay of the next version of Windows, Windows Vista, until next year. But…

"The systems that we have on the market now are ready to support Windows Vista when it does become available." So that's the message to consumers…that you can buy a PC now, a notebook now, and it will be able to run the next version of the operating system.. "Absolutely."

Still, PC makers are concerned about the effect on sales later this year. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.