Intel rebranding with Core i3, i5 and i7 while Centrino shifted to WiFi/WiMAX

Intel announced that it will be rebranding its CPU range to simplify its lineup, focusing on the “Intel Core” prefix and transitioning the Centrino brand to cover the company’s WiFi and WiMAX products. Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 will eventually replace Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, distinguishing different feature sets; but confusingly, some processors will slot into multiple i-prefix categories, depending on their capabilities.



For instance, the upcoming Lynnfield desktop processor will be an Intel Core chip, but have various models that slot into the i5 or i7 segments. Broadly speaking, i3 is an entry-level chip, i5 is a mid-level chip and i7 is the flagship high-level processor. It’s not all change, though, as the Celeron and Pentium brands went on to cover “affordable entry-level” and “basic computing” respectively.

Finally, one of the most popular chips over the last twelve months, the Atom range of processors, will also survive, and vPro technology will be offered on certain i5 or i7 chips. There’ll also be a new star-system, shown under the Intel Core logo, which indicates whether its feature-packed or not.

Intel Rumor: New Chips and Price Drops

According to DigiTimes, rumor has it that Intel is set to drop its prices as well as introduce new processor models. If they come to fruition, some CPUs could see price drops of up to 20 percent. Intel is also said that these new processors will be revealed next month. Reports say April 19 will see the launch of the Q8400 (95W) and Q8400S (65W), both clocked to 2.66 GHz but priced at $183 and $245, respectively.

The same report, which cites sources at motherboard manufacturers says that we’ll see more processors introduced at the end of May, including Celeron and Pentium Dual-Core parts, the Core 2 Duo E7600 and two new Core i7s: the 3.06 GHz 950 and the 3.33 GHz 975, priced at $562 and $999, respectively. The news comes just a couple of months after Intel dropped the prices on several processors significantly, with some of the cuts amounting to as much as 48 percent. The company's Celeron Mobile 570, Core 2 Quad Q9650 and Xeon X3370 all saw cuts of over 40 percent.

Here’s a full list of the aforementioned price drops and new releases, courtesy of DigiTimes.

New Apple® Mac® Pro using Intel “Nehalem” Xeon processors Announced

Apple® today introduced the new Mac® Pro using Intel “Nehalem” Xeon processors and a next-generation system architecture to deliver up to twice the performance of the previous generation system. The new Mac Pro starts at $2,499 and features the latest graphics technology and an updated interior that makes expansion even easier than before

Apple promises three times greater video performance with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics card with 512MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory. An ATI Radeon HD 4870 is available as a custom option, and the Mac Pro has a Mini DisplayPort and DVI port, meaning it can support Apple's new LED Cinema Display as well as existing DVI based models including the 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display.

The new quad-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

• one 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 3500 series processor with 8MB of shared L3 cache;
• 3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 8GB;
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics with 512MB of GDDR3 memory;
• 640GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• 18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort and DVI (dual-link) for video output (adapters sold separately);
• four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
• five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports;
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
• ships with Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Mighty Mouse.

The new 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $3,299 (US), includes:

• two 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5500 series processors with 8MB of shared L3 cache per processor;
• 6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics with 512MB of GDDR3 memory;
• 640GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• 18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort and DVI (dual-link) for video output (adapters sold separately);
• four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
• five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports;
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
• ships with Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Mighty Mouse.

The new Mac Pro will be available next week through the online Apple Store, Apple Retail Stores, and authorized resellers.