Without getting substantial updates for years, Intel Corp.’s Celeron lineup continues to provide better performance compared to Intel Atom central processing units thanks to Core 2-based micro-architecture. But sometimes later in 2010 or even early in 2010 its manufacturer does have plans to breathe a new micro-architecture into Celeron chips.

“We will not take [32nm process technology and appropriate micro-architecture] down into the Pentium and Celeron until either late this year or early next year,” said Paul Otellini, chief executive officer of Intel, during a recent conversation with financial analysts.

At present there vast majority of Intel’s 32nm processors belong to Core i family of chips, there is one Pentium chip and recently Intel also started to list several Celeron models based on the Arrandale/Clarkdale chips that are made using the latest fabrication process. Unfortunately, the company itself does not advertize those chips substantially and usually they can only be found in select machines by select manufacturers.

At present Celeron-branded microprocessors account for 5% - 6% volume of desktop chips by the Intel, the remaining volume is commanded by various Core i, Core 2, Pentium and even Atom microprocessors, which clearly shows that Celeron family is hardly popular.

Considering the fact that demand towards advanced chips produced at 32nm node is high at the moment, it is unlikely that Intel will truly initiate the process of upgrading the Celeron cores since the same production capacities can be utilized to produce more advanced and expensive products.

Tags: Intel, Celeron, Arrandale, Clarkdale, 32nm, Pentium