Intel Corp. has announced that it plans to discontinue several Intel Pentium D processors due to market demand shifting to other processors by the chip giant. The announcement emphasizes Intel’s intention to reduce the number of NetBurst micro-architecture based processors in the lineup.

Intel has begun discontinuance program for dual-core Intel Pentium D processors models 830 (3.0GHz, 2MB L2 cache [1MB level-two cache per core]), 840 (3.0GHz, 2MB L2 cache [1MB level-two cache per core]), 930 (3.0GHz, 2MB L2 cache [1MB level-two cache per core]) and 940 (3.0GHz, 2MB L2 cache [1MB level-two cache per core]). The microprocessors are not especially affordable or offer competitive price-performance ratio, therefore, no customers are likely to regret about their disappearance.

The last date Intel’s clients may order the chips is the 15^th of December, 2006. The last shipment dates for the aforementioned processors are February 8, 2008 and March 9, 2007 for tray and boxed processors respectively.

Shrinking of the Pentium D family will allow Intel to more clearly position microprocessors from both Pentium D and Core 2 families within the product range the company offers right now.