The first upgrade of Intel’s Conroe architecture is right around the corner. Roadmaps reveal the refreshed Conroe with a 1333 MHz front-side-bus arriving in Q3’07, around the same time of Intel’s Q3’07 price cuts. The new Core 2 Duo E6×50-series pricing will undercut pricing of current Core 2 Duo E6×00-series processors.

With the introduction of Core 2 Duo E6×50-series processors, the entire Intel Core 2 Duo desktop lineup will fall below the $300 price point. The Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 takes the top spot of Intel’s Core 2 Duo lineup at $266 per processor, in 1,000 unit quantities. Intel clocks the Core 2 Duo E6850 at 3.0 GHz, higher than last year’s flagship Core 2 Extreme X6800 and it costs a fraction of the X6800’s $999 launch price.

Slotted below the Core 2 Duo E6850 is the 2.66 GHz E6750 at $183. At the bottom end of the Core 2 Duo E6×50 family are the E6550 and E6540 processors clocked at 2.33 GHz, which cost $163 per processor, in 1,000 unit quantities. Intel’s Core 2 Duo E6540 differs from the rest of the 1333 MHz front-side bus Core 2 Duo lineup because it does not have support for Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology, also known as TXT.

Intel will also launch two more Core 2 Duo E4000-series processors. The Core 2 Duo E4400 will arrive next month clocked at 2.0 GHz for $133 per processor, in 1,000 unit quantities. In Q3’07, the Core 2 Duo E4400 will drop down to $113 with the introduction of the E4500. The Core 2 Duo E4500 clocks in at 2.2 GHz and takes over the $133 per processor, in 1,000 unit quantities, price point. Intel will slowly phase out the Core 2 Duo E4300 processor in Q3’07.

Intel will introduce the first new Pentium desktop product since it switched over to the Core naming scheme in June. Two Pentium E2100 models will launch, the E2160 and E2140. These models are dual-core Conroe-based processors with 1MB of shared L2 cache. The 1.80 GHz Pentium E2160 fills the $84 price point while the 1.6 GHz Pentium E 2140 costs $10 less per processor, in 1,000 unit quantities.

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This is was what I was waiting for a long time…As my time to upgrade comes near, Intel brings out lower priced processors forcing me to dump my plans of buying a AMD-FX processor…

Still riding strong on the success of the its Core2Duo processors Intel is getting aggressive and planning to launch its latest server processors based on 45nm technology and Penryn core in the second half of 2007.

Here is an extract from DailyTech reagarding this news :

Kirk Skaugen, general manager of Intel’s Server Platform Group, opened his statements with “We were originally in the Q1′08 timeframe. Today I’m happy to announce to report for the first time that our server 45nm Xeon products based on the Penryn core will be available into production for the second half of 2007.”

Intel’s latest desktop guidance claims 45nm desktop SKUs will also launch in late 2007, with volume shipments occurring in 2008. As it stands right now, only the mobile 45nm SKUs are expected to launch in 2008.

Skaugen also confirmed that Penryn-based Xeon processors will utilize the same server platform as Xeon 5000, 5100 and 5300. Nehalem, Intel’s next-generation micro architecture on the 45nm node slated for 2008, will require new platform technology and is not compatible with the Penryn platform.

45nm quad-core Harpertown and dual-core Wolfdale were originally slated to spearhead the next-generation Xeon launch in Q1 2008. The existing Bensley platform, Intel 5000P chipset, will still provide the heavy lifting for volume dual-socket on 45nm Xeon. A new platform, Cranberry Lake, will replace Bensley-VS for value dual-socket Intel platforms, and will support Harpertown and Wolfdale.