While mainboard makers claim that the demand for dual-core Intel microprocessors is low and Intel is unlikely to achieve its target to ship even a million of dual-core central processing units this year, Intel itself is rather optimistic about its shipments and claims that the firm has already shipped hundreds of thousands of its Pentium D and Pentium Extreme Edition products.

“We have good market acceptance with this platform, meeting our goal of shipping several hundred thousand dual-core processors in the second quarter,” stated Intel’s chief executive Paul Otellini during the most-recent conference call.

Earlier some sources among mainboard makers cited by Taiwanese media said that the demand for dual-core processors by Intel Corp. was weak. Another report suggested that the third calendar quarter shipments of Intel Pentium D-series processors were only expected to reach 100 thousand units, whereas total shipments of dual-core desktop processors this year were projected to achieve half a million milestone, which was considerably lower than Intel originally indicated. Still, Intel claims it is on-track with its dual-core volume.

“We plan to triple that number in Q3 and ship millions [of dual-core processors] this year,” Mr. Otellini added.

Intel’s dual-core Intel Pentium D products are relatively affordable: $241, $316 or $530 – depending on the speed-bin and model – for 820 (2.80GHz), 830 (3.00GHz) or 840 (3.20GHz) chips respectively. Intel Pentium Extreme Edition processor 840 that also runs at 3.20GHz, but with HT technology enabled, costs $999 in 1000-unit quantities and is available now. Despite of the pricing, the demand for Intel Pentium D processors was low, according to sources mainboard makers. Unfortunately, the sources cited by Asian press do not give any particular reasons for this, as demand is stimulated by pricing of the whole computer platform as well as performance of the whole platform.

The data about dual-core Intel processors acceptance from independent sources was unavailable at press time.