Intel looking for market to migrate to 600-series CPUs by 3Q, mobo makers disagree

“Intel is hoping the market will migrate from 500-series Pentium 4 CPUs to 64-bit 600-series by the third quarter of this year, with the chip giant promoting the fact that 915- and 945-series chipsets will support the 64-bit CPU platform, according to market sources.

Sources at motherboard makers commented that quotes for the 600-series Pentium 4 processors are still too high for customers, even though the new CPUs have the added features of support for Enhanced Memory 64-bit Technology (EM64T) and more L2 cache. Although Intel may lower prices for the 600-series CPUs in August, the sources pointed out that prices for 500-series will drop as well, and the price gap between the two should remain at about US$20.

However, motherboard makers in Taiwan believe that Intel will introduce new EM64T-enabled Pentium 4- and Celeron-series products for desktop PCs in the second quarter of this year.”