SANTA CLARA – Intel Corp. said Sunday it plans to sell its new generation of chips for desktop computers under the established “Core” brand, with the first chips of the new line to be called Core i7.

The microprocessors are based on a design the company has code-named Nehalem and are expected to be in production the last three months of this year. Intel says the new design will deliver both high performance and energy efficiency.

Santa Clara-based Intel indicated that the Core name, already used for other chips including the popular Core 2 Duo processor, will be its flagship PC processor brand.

“Expect Intel to focus even more marketing resources around that name and the Core i7 products starting now,” Sean Maloney, general manager of Intel's sales and marketing group, said in a news release.

The first chips in the new family of processors, including an “Extreme Edition” version, will carry an “i7” identifier. The identifier will be the first of several to come as different chips are launched over the next year, Intel said.

Intel is the world's No. 1 maker of microprocessors with about three-quarters of the worldwide market.