Intel Corp. on Friday sent its clients a document claiming that starting from June, 10, 2005, the company would supply Intel Pentium 4 500-series processors with 64-bit capability. The company advices partners to make sure Extended Memory 64 Technology is supported by BIOS of mainboards that are planned to be used by them at that time.

Intel’s lineup of EM64T- and EDB-enabled Intel Pentium 4 processors 500-series will consist of models 571, 561, 551, 541, 531 and 521, which are clocked at 3.80GHz, 3.60GHz, 3.40GHz, 3.20GHz, 3.00GHz and 2.80GHz respectively. The new chips will substitute Intel Pentium 4 models 570, 560, 550, 540, 530 and 520 on the market, the world’s largest chipmaker indicated. The new microprocessors will be equipped with 1MB of L2 cache, designed to be drop-in compatible with LGA775 infrastructure with 800MHz processor system bus and will retain thermal specs similar to predecessors. It is unclear whether the forthcoming chips will have any additional changes compared to the original Intel Pentium 4 500-series products.

Pricing of the new 64-bit chips is expected to be similar to that of Intel Pentium 4 500-series processors. Currently the model 570J is priced $637, while the model 520J costs $163 in 1000-unit quantities. On the 30^th of June, 2005, the chip giant is expected to slash the prices on a wide range of its products.

Unveiled in early 2004, Extended Memory 64 Technology also known under 64-bit Extension Technology or IA32e lets Intel’s server and client processors to execute specially-written 64-bit code and address more than 4GB of memory while maintaining absolute compatibility with today’s 32-bit applications. Intel said several years ago it would release 64-bit capable processors across all market segments when there are appropriate operating systems. Microsoft released its Windows XP Professional x64 Edition a couple of weeks ago.

Currently Intel also ships its 64-bit Pentium 4 processors 600-series with up to 3.60GHz clock-speed that contain 2MB of L2 cache, support EM64T, HT, EIST, EDB technologies, and are also compatible with 800MHz PSB LGA775 infrastructure, such as mainboards based on i915- and i925-series chipsets. Intel’s dual-core desktop products also support 64-bit. Previously the company also supplied a special family of Intel Pentium 4 products for servers and workstations, but last week the firm said it would discontinue the series.

Intel is also expected to release its Intel Celeron D chips with EM64T capability later during the year.