It was just a matter of time when personal computers with dual-core processors reach the mainstream market and seems that the time has come, as Dell is offering its laptops based on the Intel Core Duo processors with two processing engines for $999 and $899. 

Dell Inc. has slashed prices on its Inspiron E1705 and Latitude D620 notebooks to $999 and $899 respectively, which effectively pushes laptops with dual-core processors into the mainstream market and also shows that the industry is very serious about promoting the dual-core technology among the general users, who are mostly concerned about the pricing, not technological excellence of their personal computers (PCs). 

The base model of the Inspiron E1705, which sells for $999, comes with 17” screen with 1280x768 resolution, Intel Core Duo processor T2300 (1.66GHz), 1GB of dual-channel PC2-4300 (533MHz) DDR2 memory, Intel 945GM core-logic with built-in Intel Media Accelerator 950 graphics core (may be upgraded to ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 with HyperMemory tech), 60GB hard disk drive, CD-burner/DVD reader optical drive, 802.11g wireless network card, 53WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion battery, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center edition operating system and so on. 

Dell Inspiron D620 laptop in its base flavour, which is designed for business users and sells for $899, according to the company, offers 14.1” screen with 1280x800  resolution, Intel Core Duo processor T2300 (1.66GHz), 512GB of single-channel PC2-4300 (533MHz) DDR2 memory, Intel 945GM core-logic with built-in Intel Media Accelerator 950 graphics core, 40GB hard disk drive, CD-reader optical drive, 802.11g wireless network card, 4-cell Lithium Ion battery, Microsoft Windows XP SP2 Home edition operating system and so on. 

With Dell first to cut its prices for dual-core notebooks, more dual-core models priced at below $1000 will be available from such vendors as Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Acer in May, according to market sources cited by a report in Saturday’s Chinese-language Commercial Times news-paper, reports DigiTimes web-site. Transition of mainstream notebooks to dual-core processors is expected to take place by the end of the second quarter, thanks to more price cuts on dual-core models that were priced above $1540 in the first quarter as a result of price slashes on core components, the web-site quoted sources as indicating.

Leading central processing units (CPUs) makers Advanced Micro Devices and Intel Corp. said that single-core processors with high clock-speeds no longer provided adequate “performance per watt” ratio, which is particularly important for notebooks, and indicated that the future of CPUs will be multi-core designs that can handle more tasks at the same time compared to single-core chips.