Competition is good for the consumer :-)
The Register reports that Intel is introducing some entry level processors:
- Core 2 Quad - Q8200 - 45nm, 2.66GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 4MB L2 cache for $224
- Core 2 Duo - E5200 - 45nm, 2.5GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache for $84
- Celeron D - 450 - 65nm, 2.2GHz, 800MHz FSB, 512KB L2 cache for $53
Fudzilla says he has gotten a hold of some Bloomfield prices:
- Core i7 @ 3.2GHz, QPI @ 6.4 for $999 in Q4
- Core i7 @ 2.93GHz, QPI @ 4.8, 8MB cache, $530+
- Core i7 @ 2.66GHz, QPI @ 4.8, 8MB cache $284
And later he says that Core i7's will only support DDR3 800 and DDR3 1066 - a far cry from the high speed DDR3's on the market. Apparently this may be due to a requirement to run the DDR3 modules at the CPU core voltage, which is capped at 1.65V, which is lower than the voltage needed by high speed DDR3 modules.