Intel announces 64-bit Celerons

Computex 2005 Intel today formally committed itself to bringing its EM64T 64-bit processing extensions down into the Celeron D line of low-cost desktop chips.

The chips are "shipping in volume" and Intel has "products in the marketplace", the company's joint marketing chief, Anand Chandrasekher, said at Computex 2005, today.

He didn't provide much in the way of detail, however. Intel's internal roadmap, leaked earlier this year, reveal that the chip maker is planning to ship six Celeron Ds with 64-bit processing enabled. At the top of the list is the all-new 351, clocked at 3.2GHz, while the 326, 331, 336, 341 and 346, clocked at 2.53, 2.66, 2.80, 2.93 and 3.06GHz, respectively, supersede the current LGA775 Celeron D line-up, with a '1' added to the model number to indicate the effect on EM64T. Intel is expected to ship a 3.33GHz Celeron D 355 next quarter.

Intel first indicated it would extend EM64T to the Celeron family back in February, at Intel Developer Forum, in an aside made by the company's, industrial technology programs director, Frank Spindler. However, Chandrasekher's mention is the closest Intel has yet come to formally announcing the chips.

He did not address Celeron D's naming, now that the dual-core Pentium D is shipping. The Celeron D line's model numbers may be well below those of the dual-core chip, the use of the 'D', added to indicate the use of the LGA775 pin-out, may well now be mistaken in the minds of some consumers for 'dual-core'. ®

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