Intel also says that its gross margin will be in the upper half of the previous range of "52% plus or minus a couple of points".

New chips

It has been a good day for chipmakers with Intel's rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) unveiling its much-hyped new server chip.

It is AMD's first "quad-core" chip, which features four processors on a single chip.

The product launch is a key part of AMD's attempts to compete with Intel, which has a market value 21 times bigger than AMD.

AMD shares rose 2% in early trading.