Intel hit the ground running Monday by unveiling a dozen new additions to its Intel Xeon processor lineup

The new products, which include chipsets, processors, and platforms for Intel-based workstations and servers, will begin shipping by the end of the year, the company said. Just last week the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker went to market with its Pentium 4 processor at 3.06 Ghz, which combined with today's new offerings, mark the largest assembly of new products the chipmaker has released in seven years. Intel is also sitting on a potential cash-cow when Microsoft Windows .Net Server 2003 is released, which is based on Intel Itanium and Xeon processor architecture. Intel's new releases include four Intel Xeon processors for two-way servers and workstations, at speeds up to 2.8 GHz with 512 KB; and three new chipsets, the E7501, E7505, and E7205, which are designed to provide faster speeds for network security, traffic management, and voice over IP. The E7505 chipset is designed for two-way workstations using Intel Xeon processors, and the E7205 is for single processor workstations based on Pentium 4 processors. Both chipsets also support USB 2.0 and include AGP 8x support for graphics-intensive applications. On the other side of the chipset, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) got off to a shaky start this week by announcing that its would take a fourth-quarter pretax charge of between $300 and $600 million to execute its restructuring and cost-cutting strategy, which also includes the elimination of 2,000 jobs from AMD facilities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.