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By TIMES WIRES
Published July 28, 2006

Intel unveils 10 new microprocessors

Intel Corp. introduced its most important product line in six years Thursday, unveiling 10 microprocessors that are expected to help the world's largest chipmaker retake ground lost to smaller competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The Core 2 Duo microprocessors, which are being rolled out gradually over the next month, are Intel's first desktop and mobile chips to feature a blueprint designed to deliver significantly better performance while requiring less power and kicking off less heat. Over the past year, Intel has lost about 5 percentage points of market share to rival AMD thanks to a raft of products that many reviewers have said are faster and less expensive to run than Pentium 4 processors, which Intel rolled out in 2000. The new Intel design delivers as much as 40 percent better performance while consuming as much as 40 percent fewer watts than the previous generation.

Stihl proud that its products are hard to find

Why would a manufacturer run ads telling potential customers where its products aren't sold? For Stihl Inc., it's about image. The German maker of chain saws and other hand-held yard tools thinks emphasizing that it doesn't sell through mass merchants such as Lowe's and Home Depot reinforces its aura of exclusivity. Stihl's bright-orange machines can be bought only through independent dealers. "Sometimes telling someone where you're not available is more effective than telling where you are," says Kenneth Waldron, the company's marketing manager. Stihl's ads, which have run over the past year in national newspapers, feature pictures of various tools and always start with a question, such as: "What makes this handheld blower too powerful to be sold at Lowe's or The Home Depot?" The answer, in smaller print in that particular ad, is Stihl has the "power" of 8,000 dealers, who supply advice and service not available at the big stores. Closely held Stihl, the U.S. subsidiary of Germany's Andreas Stihl AG & Co. KG, declined to say how much it has spent on the ads.

Other chatter

EXPENSIVE RETIREMENT HEALTH CARE: Do you have $295,000 to pay for health care in retirement? That's how much the Employee Benefit Research Institute says a 65-year-old couple needs to cover Medigap premiums and out-of-pocket expenses with a normal life expectancy. If you're planning to live to 95, better have $550,000. The present value of lifetime Medicare benefits for a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2005 was $328,000. But Medicare only covers half of health care costs. Even scarier, Medicare could be insolvent by 2018 and benefits reduced.

Information from the Associated Press, Wall Street Journal and Times staff writer Helen Huntley was used in this report.

[Last modified July 28, 2006, 01:18:00]