Intel has reduced the prices of some their most popular processors, while introducing low power replacements. Some Intel processor prices are down as much as 48 percent.

Intel has announced price reductions on a wide range of popular processors. The lines reduced include the Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium dual-core, Celeron, and Xeon product lines. Intel cuts were concentrated on quad-core chips like the Q9650 (3.00GHz), which was reduced 40 percent from $530 to $316. However, Celeron series processors were subject to some of the biggest price reductions. The 2.00GHz mobile Celeron 570, for example, was cut by 48 percent, from $134 down to $70, according to electronista.com.

The price of the Pentium dual-core E5200 was reduced 24 percent from $84 to $64. The Xeon lineup also saw some significant reductions. One example is the 3.00GHz X3370, which was cut from $530 to $316, a reduction of 40 percent. The price of the mobile Core 2 Duo P8600 was reduced by just 13 percent, from $241 to $209.

There were probably two reasons for these price reductions. First, Intel needed to match prices with the new Phenom II Dragon chipsets, introduced just a few weeks ago by AMD. The price cuts announced today do just that. Perhaps of more overall importance, Intel needed to make room for some new low-power and low-profile chips that had been widely rumored for some time, but which were officially announced today.

Perhaps the most important change that Intel has made to its desktop processor line involves the introduction of high efficiency quad-core chips. The Core 2 Quad Q9550, Q9400, and Q8200 chips (2.83GHz, 2,66GHz, and 2.33GHz respectively) all use just 65 watts of power, as opposed to the 95 watts used the the chips that preceded them. These chips are also more efficient then their predecessors, allowing designers more flexibility.

These more eco-friendly, small-form-factor chips are the wave of the future. They will lead to less power-hungry and more compact devices almost immediately, bringing us closer to a more powerful and more portable future, especially considering the low-power, low-profile laptop chips that were also recently introduced by Intel. The future is closer than you think.

Related:

Entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 4:13 pm under Green Technology, Intel, Technology.

Read more entries by Michael W. Jones.
Stumble It!