Quad-Core Processors to Go Mainstream by 2009

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Can't wait!

By the end of 2009, today's high-end quad-core processors will eventually appear in close to half of all mainstream desktop systems, according to new data released by market research firm iSuppli on Tuesday.

Intel's current Core 2 Quad and Advanced Micro Devices' forthcoming quad-core processors—all of which combine four processor cores into a single silicon die—are still hampered by high costs and limited availability, iSuppli said.

Pricing for a quad-core processor can be as much as 170 percent higher than for a dual-core chip, which today limits their use to strictly the performance desktop PC segment of the industry. That segment currently represents only 6 percent of total PC unit shipments, according to the research firm.

But that is expected to dramatically change over the next two years as quad-core microprocessor technology gradually begins to penetrate the mainstream desktop PC segment.

iSuppli says that while no mainstream desktop PCs will ship with quad-core microprocessors in the first half of 2007, quad-core penetration in mainstream desktop PCs will rise to 5 percent by the third quarter of 2007, and then to 7 percent by the fourth quarter.

In fact, that penetration will continue to increase in the following months, according to the firm, hitting 18 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, and then rocketing to nearly half of the market (49 percent) in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Source: ExtremeTech