HKEPC has gotten their hands on some detailed information about Intel's upcoming 2GHz dual core Celeron processor, which will launch sometime in the first half of this year. With the current Celeron E1200 priced about €12 less than its Pentium Dual Core E2140 counterpart, it looks as if the new dual core Celerons might have a place in the market.

The 2GHz model should be known as the E1400, although it does seem like an odd jump, but there might very well be an E1300 at 1.8GHz. There are no changes being made to the E1400 over the E1200 in terms of features, it's just a clock speed increase.

However, HKEPC is pointing out one interesting point: the price of the E1400 will be $53, which is currently the list price for the E1200 in quantities of 1,000 units. Intel might very well drop the bottom-end Pentium Dual Cores in favor of these new Celeron processors, as there shouldn't be too much between them in terms of performance, despite the Celeron using half the cache memory.

Intel is supposedly expecting the new dual core Celerons to equate for about three percent of its shipping processors in Q1 of 2008 and up to 10 percent over the year. The dual core Celerons should replace the single core Celerons altogether by 2009.

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