The world’s largest chipmaker Intel Corp. has unveiled several new quad-core microprocessors at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Nevada and now offers nine chips for desktop, server and workstation applications that feature four processing engines.

With the latest announcements, Intel now offers nine quad-core microprocessors for various market segments: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 for desktops, Intel Xeon X5355, E5345, E5335, E5320 and E5310 microprocessors for dual-socket server and workstation systems as well as Intel Xeon chips X3220 and X3210 for single-processor systems.

Despite of the fact that the newly introduced Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 chip is sold for $851 instead of $531 rumoured previously, Intel considers $851 price-point for a chip normal for “everyone’s PC”, even though several years ago the highest price-point for Intel’s most innovative chips was $637.

“Today Intel delivers another breakthrough – quad-core technology for anyone's PC. The performance once requiring a supercomputer is now on the desktop, allowing you to do new and amazing things,” said Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 runs at 2.40GHz, comes with 8MB L2 cache and uses 1066MHz processor system bus (PSB). Even though the chip now costs quite a lot, its price is going to be reduced to $531 within the following months, some unofficial sources indicated. In addition, Intel is projected to unveil Core 2 Quad Q6400 processor in Q3 2007, which is likely to operate at the speed of 2.13GHz, accommodate 8MB of L2 cache in total and use 1066MHz PSB. The chip will be fit into more mainstream price-points, it is anticipated.

The consumer-oriented Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor is available in PCs and in the reseller channel immediately. Quad-core Intel Xeon processor pricing includes the X3220 (2.40GHz) at $851 and the quad-core Intel Xeon Processor X3210 (2.13GHz) at $690.