Intel’s solutions for the Low-End market cannot boast impressive performance. Celeron processors targeted for this market segment and based on the cut-down Northwood core with 128KB L2 cache and 400MHz bus have now reached 2.4GHz core clock frequency. However, all the Low-End Athlon XP models rated as 1600+ and 1700+ look much more attractive in this market due to their relatively high performance, low price and excellent overclockability.

Therefore, Intel has revised its plans concerning the new Celeron CPUs scheduled to be released before the end of this year. So, in Q3 2003 Celeron clock frequencies should grow up to 2.6GHz, in Q4 Celeron 2.7GHz should come out, and in Q1 2004 we can expect Celeron 2.8GHz. Although all these processor will still be based on the old Northwood core with 400MHz bus and 128KB L2 cache.

Besides the clock frequencies increase, Intel is going to reduce Celeron prices quite tangibly. Even the prices of the fastest models will go down below the $100-bar. This will happen during the next price reduction, which is to take place on April 27. Here are some more details:

As we can see, the price of the fastest models will drop by about 25-30%. However, I would like to point out nevertheless, that for $100 you can afford an Athlon XP 2200+, which is definitely much faster than Intel Celeron 2.4GHz.