Intel Corporation may accelerate the transition to land grid array processor packaging and launch the new platforms supporting DDR-II and PCI Express as early as in the very late first quarter, web-site X86-secret.com revealed today.

According to the report, Intel may formally launch its Grantsdale-P, Grantsdale-G and Alderwood chipsets on the 29^th of March 2004 – in the very later first quarter. The information was not confirmed by our sources directly, but they mentioned that the 28^th of March is the first day when the new chipsets are listed in Intel’s official core-logic pricelist at $38, $42 and $50 price-points respectively. This may mean that the company will begin the shipments of its Grantsdale-P, Grantsdale-G and Alderwood products in late March and will immediately announce the availability of the novelties.

It is not absolutely clear when the new mainboards powered by the new chipsets will actually emerge on the market.

LGA775 aka Socket T will not be an ordinary CPU socket, but will utilise new land grid array (LGA) connector type which permits direct electrical connection between a module substrate and a mainboard. It is bit complex type of socketing, but it allows making CPUs with higher density of pins keeping the costs of such devices at levels suitable for mainstream computing. Additionally, LGA775 is better suitable for processors with higher power consumption and core-clock. According to Intel, Pentium 4 SSE3 processors with speeds from 3.80GHz and above will be LGA only. Initial code-named Prescott chips will debut in Socket 478.

The first LGA775 processors are expected to debut in Q2 2004. However, in case the report from X86-secret.com is correct, we may see actual chips in the new form-factor already in late March 2004.

The Pentium 4 with SSE3 technology LGA775 CPUs made using 90nm fabrication process will be clocked at 2.80 GHz, 3.00GHz, 3.20GHz, 3.40GHz and 3.60GHz, will sport 800MHz PSB, incorporate 1MB cache and will be priced at Intel’s general mainstream and high-end pricing. Moreover, in order to further popularize the LGA775 form-factor, Intel adds 3.80GHz chip with 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus in the high end and 2.80GHz CPU with 533MHz QPB in the mainstream sections sometime in Q3. The latter CPU will probably become an interesting option for mainstream computers at $800-$999. Sources close to the chipmaker also believe there will be a plethora of Celeron microprocessors for Socket T.