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SAN FRANCISCO - Bruised and battered by recent business bobbles, semiconductor giant Intel Corp. is focusing on what it knows best - technology - to turn the company around.

Trying to stem market share gains by Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel is racing to be the first to sell a new type of computer processor that can handle more tasks at once.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini on Tuesday laid out the ambitious road map that he said could help Intel regain and solidify its leadership of the chip industry.

If Intel comes through with the products as promised, starting in November high-end desktop computer users will be able to buy machines that come with four core processing units that churn out about 70 percent better performance than today's two-core chips.

Users of hand-held computers and other small devices will be able to access the Internet with high-speed connections beginning in 2008. Soon after that, they'll be able to access far-reaching WiMAX wireless zones that can stretch for miles instead of a few dozen yards.

And with lower power consumption, hand-held computers and other portable devices will come with seven hours of battery life instead of about three hours on average today.

''We have a model now for sustained technology leadership,'' Otellini said in opening a conference for product developers.

Financial and industry analysts generally agree that Intel is getting back on the right track after previously losing ground to arch-rival Advanced Micro Devices, missing key deadlines and growing bloated to the point where it announced 10,500 job cuts earlier this month.

''Intel is a big battleship - it takes time for it to turn around,'' said David Wu, an analyst with investment firm Global Crown Capital.

In one positive sign, Intel announced Tuesday it has sold 5 million of its dual-core PC processors, called Core2 Duo, since introducing the high-powered chips just 60 days ago. That's the best product launch in the company's history, Otellini said.

Otellini said the next key to Intel's continued turnaround will be introducing the four-core processor for gamers and other high-end graphics users in November. It plans to start selling cheaper quad-core processors for mainstream machines sometime in the first quarter of next year.

AMD also is working on a four-core chip for gaming-centric PCs and has said only that it will release it in time for the holiday selling season.

On Tuesday, spokesman Pat Moorhead said AMD's chips would be better because they'll be expandable to eight cores.

Moorhead called Intel's claim to be back in the driver's seat in the chip business ''a complete misnomer. We'll let the market and our customers answer that question.''

Otellini also announced Intel is well ahead of AMD and other chip companies in making processors with smaller transistors, which will mean even smaller and more powerful electronic devices for consumers in the future.

Intel plans to begin producing chips with 45-nanometer transistors - substantially smaller than the 65-nanometer transistor chips it makes today - by the middle of next year. By comparison, a human hair is about 80,000 nanometers in diameter.

In addition to a factory in Oregon, the company is building 45-nanometer factories in Arizona and Israel.