Intel unveils upgraded Celerons

Intel has launched two new versions of its Celeron processors aimed at the sub $1000 PC market.

The announcement came as arch rival AMD is ramping up its own low-end processor - code named Spitfire - ready for launch in the next few months.

The chips, which are available in 566Mhz and 600Mhz versions, are based on Intel's 0.18 micron technology, which enables greater speeds, higher volume manufacturing and lower overall production costs.

The new chips include Internet Streaming SIMD (single instruction multiple data) extensions which, combined with faster chip speeds, deliver a significant performance boost over previous versions, the company said. The SIMD extensions improve the performance of applications which use floating point intensive computations, such as music and graphics.

The new Celerons also support 128Kb of on-chip level two cache, along with a 66Mhz system bus.

Pat Gelsinger, vice president and general manger at Intel's desktop products group, said: "Intel is keeping its foot on the gas in the value PC market segment."

He added: "We launched a Celeron processor in the first week of the year and are now adding faster versions based on our 0.18 micron technology. Several more Celeron processor family members are due before June, reinforcing our leadership in the value PC market segment."