Intel, the world’s largest processor manufacturer has just launched a new programmable chip made by Altera Corp that will come with its low-powered Atom processor for netbooks. The chip, known as the E600C Series, can be customized by the clients to match their requirements.

Intel’s processors already make up the CPUs of 80 percent of the world’s computers. With the launch of this new chip, the company has taken a step to use its silicon in other embedded applications such as medical equipment.

“This is a breakthrough for us as far as being able to have one of our customers be able to develop and program their own specific (intellectual property) in the silicon itself,” Intel Marketing Director Jonathan Luse told Reuters.

The processor giant expects the demand of embedded chips to increase by over 25 percent over next 4-5 years. So, the company is all set to gain better focus and revenues from embedded chips in near future, which account for $1 billion of Intel’s $44 billion in anticipated sales during 2010. The E600C Series will be available in early 2011.

Earlier this month, Intel was in news for its partnership with Toshiba and Samsung for another chip development- 10nm class NAND with a higher capacity of DRAM and flash memory. This trio partnership is said to be supported by the Japanese Ministry of Economy that will sponsor half of the total expenditure, i.e., $62 billion.

Another notable achievement by Intel was the launch of code-name Sandy Bridge that combines a microprocessor with a graphic processor on a single silicon chip. The introduction of Sandy Bridge has posed a threat for graphic chip makers due to its combo nature.

Intel’s competitor AMD also announced its new innovation “Fusion APUs” to combine the integrated graphics with CPU performance. It is also expected to hit the market by early 2011 with the target of small mobile form factors. AMD claimed that it is the first company to launch a combo processor, even though we’d heard of the Intel’s Sandy Bridge earlier than that. Let’s see where this struggle between the two giants takes them.