Intel Wednesday offered up a speed bump to its
entry-level chips for a song.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip making giant said its Celeron
processor is now available at speeds up to 2.70 GHz for desktop and mobile PCs.
Intel is pricing the new Celeron aggressively with a price point of $103 in 1,000-unit quantities. The last time the Celeron got a speed
bump, the processor performed at speeds of 2.20 and 1.26 GHz priced at $149 and $107, respectively.
Based on Intel’s 0.13-micron process technology, the processor uses
478-pin packaging and features a 400 MHz system bus.
“It’s targeted at the discount PC market and is also used in portable desktop replacement notebooks where our Centrino technology excels, but where mobility is not a concern,” Intel spokesperson George Alfs told internetnews.com.
While Intel could not say which of the PC vendors would be using its faster Celeron chips, traditional Celeron buyers Sony , Dell
, Hewlett-Packard
, Gateway
and Toshiba are expected to put the processors in their less-expensive models.
The new Celeron also comes with an attractive price point ($103 in
1,000-unit quantities). The last time the Celeron got a speed
bump, the processor performed at speeds of 2.20 and 1.26 GHz priced at $149 and $107, respectively.
The price shift comes as Intel makes room for next generation chips based on 90 nm process technology, compared to the Celeron lines that are based on older 1.3 micron process.
Intel is giving its desktop and mobile line quite the workout of late. Earlier this month, the company unveiled
a new 3.2 GHz new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition for enthusiast PCs.
