Intel Corp. on Monday dramatically reduced prices on select quad-core and dual-core microprocessors in a bid to boost demand towards speedier chips. The lowest-cost quad-core processor from Intel is now available from $163.

Intel’s Core 2 Quad central processing unit model Q9650 (3.0GHz, 12MB L2 cache, 1333MHz processor system bus) has lost 40% of its price in business quantities and is now available for $316. Other quad-core models from Intel, such as Q9550, Q9400, Q8300 and Q8200 has lost 16% - 20% of pricing. The Core 2 Quad Q8200 chip, Intel’s most affordable processor with four processing engines is available for $163. In addition to quad-core desktop chips, Intel also made several quad-core Xeon chips for uni-processor servers more affordable.

Besides, Intel also slashed prices of several entry-level dual-core products, such as Intel Core 2 Duo as well as Intel Pentium Dual-Core chips.

Additionally, the world’s largest chipmaker reduced pricing of certain mobile processors, primarily Intel Celeron mobile chips in order to enable low-cost notebooks with higher-performance processors and avoid cannibalization of the segment by netbooks powered by Intel Atom.

The price-cut from Intel is rather unexpected and will definitely add pressure on the company’s arch-rival Advanced Micro Devices, who only recently launched competitive AMD Phenom II processors. In addition, price slashes catalyze PC makers to more aggressively push systems with Intel CPUs inside.

Tags: Intel, Business