Intel reportedly plans to drop prices on select Sandy Bridge processors in September and again in October. The planned cuts come as the chip giant is preparing to refresh budget and mid-range Sandy Bridge CPUs, according to CPU World, citing sources from notebook players.
Intel will debut the Core i5-2320, Core i3-2130, i3-2125 and i3-2120T, as well as Pentium G860, G630 and G630T models later this fall. The first round of cuts affects all mid and low-power Core i7 and Core i5 SKUs. In October, Intel will focus on making Core i3 and Pentium models cheaper to own.
The i3-2120 will see the biggest price cut, shedding $21 off the top. Most of the other price cuts are in the $10-12 range; hardly worth getting excited over, but every little bit counts in today's economy.
In somewhat related news, Intel has reportedly delayed the launch of its next-generation Atom-based netbook platform. DigiTimes reports that Cedar Trail-M is being pushed back from its original September launch date to November due to graphics driver issues. The platform also hasn't passed Windows 7 certification yet.
Cedar Trail-M includes two new CPUs, a 32nm-based Atom N2800 operating at 1.86GHz and the N2600 at 1.6GHz. Prices for the mobile processors are $47 and $42, respectively, and will replace existing N475 and N455 parts. Nettop chips D2700 and D2500 are also being delayed for the same reasons, the sources claim.
Netbooks have declined in popularity as tablets have become the new hot item, meaning a slight delay shouldn't affect notebook manufacturers much.