Intel will introduce its quad-core desktop processor series, codenamed "Kentsfield," in the fourth quarter of 2006, instead of the first quarter of 2007 as originally scheduled, Taiwan motherboard makers noted. The unit price of the quad-core Kentsfield CPU will be US$999, in 1000-unit tray quantities, indicated the makers.
By launching the 65nm quad-core processors ahead of scedule, Intel is attempting to secure a leading position in the high-end gaming market, to counter AMD"s fourth quarter introduction of the Socket-AM2 Athlon 64 FX-64 series of processors, which support a core speed of 3GHz and 2x1MB L2 cache memory, according to the makers. Intel"s Socket-775 quad-core Kentsfield, which will be included in the Core 2 Extreme CPU family, has a core speed of 2.66GHz, a built-in 2x4MB L2 cache and supports a 1066MHz front-side bus (FSB), said the makers.