Intel's finally received the kick-in-the-pants from its rival AMD, and, trying to kick that reputation of having hot chips has decided to revamp its server quad-core Xeon chips. The new chips, which have started shipping, use a mere 50 watts of power. It also has a 60 percent reduction from the previous generation of Xeon chips.

So how does this stack up with AMD? Well, Intel is ahead, which is probably why they released this now. Anyhow, AMD has only 68 watts, so AMD's got an 18 wattage reduction challenge set for them now...

So how low can these chip-makers go? It seems like they're catering to the server market, which uses incredible amounts of power. I wonder how long it'll take for solar-powered servers to come out. Regardless, it's good to see healthy competition making our products better, and the environmentalists happy.