Intel Corporation today announced its first value processors made using 90nm process technology. The new Celeron D central processing units firmly enhance performance of the company’s products intended for customers in budget.

Intel Celeron D processors pack 256KB of level-two cache, twice the size of the previous-generation Celeron chips, and 533MHz processor system bus, a 33% improvement over 0.13 micron value chips from the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker. Besides, the new Celeron CPUs also sport SSE3 technology found in the latest incarnation of the Pentium 4 dubbed “Prescott”. While the new Celeron D processors traditionally have much in common with the more advanced Intel Pentium 4 chips, including deeper pipeline and enhanced prefetch mechanisms for Prescott-based central processing units, the Celeron D do not sport the Hyper-Threading technology.

The reason why Intel Corporation decided to add “D” letter to the Celeron trademark is not known. Previously Intel has never used any additional numbers of letters in the branding of value chips. All Celeron processors, including the first Celeron 266MHz chip based on Klamath1 core and the latest Celeron 2.80GHz based on Northwood core, carried the same brand-name that does not indicate the products’ micro-architecture.

The Intel Celeron D processors will be marked according to recently uncovered product number scheme. Initially Intel offers Celeron D 335, 330, 325, and 320 processors, available at frequencies of 2.80GHz, 2.66GHz, 2.53GHz and 2.40GHz respectively. At this point Intel Celeron D come in PGA478 packaging and are compatible with i845-, i865- and i875-series chipsets. Eventually Celeron D processors will be supplied in LGA775 form-factor.

Introduction of the Celeron D processors with improved performance over predecessors is likely to put some additional pressure on sales of Intel’s arch-rival Advanced Micro Devices’ Athlon XP and eventually Sempron processors. AMD tends to offer its value chips at the same price-points as Intel Celeron processors are available.

In 1000-unit quantities, the Intel Celeron D processors 335, 330, 325, and 320 are priced at $117, $89, $79, and $69, respectively.