Intel will phase out production of three low-end chipsets for desktop PCs in favor of selling its higher-end and Centrino-based products, CNET News.com has learned.
The move, expected to take place by the end of August, could delay shipments of low-end PCs from various manufacturers for a couple of months.
Sources close to the chipmaking giant's dealings confirmed reports that Intel would shutter production of its 910GL, 915GL and 915PL chipsets. The three microcontrollers that help feed the main brain of Pentium 4 and Celeron D chips were expected to make up about 20 percent of Intel's desktop chipset supply in the second half of this year.
An Intel representative dismissed reports suggesting the company was exiting the low-end chipset business altogether but said the company was in the middle of making changes to its manufacturing plants to make way for more mobile-focused and high-performance products. Despite reports of which products would be phased out, Intel declined to officially state which chipsets would be put on the back burner.
"Our factories are now running at full capacity, but we are experiencing changes and, temporarily, there will be shortages," Intel representative Bill Kircos said. He added that the company is expecting a product refresh later this year on all of its marquee processors: Pentium, Xeon and Itanium.
Intel's shift toward higher-performance chipsets may indicate that the company is ready to address next-generation chips with support for processors with multiple cores, new front-side bus architectures, new peripheral interfaces and a growing list of demands such as managing security and running multiple operating systems.
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