Intel plans to cut four high end processors but this won't happen until later in 2010. Intel plans to get rid of Core 2 Extreme X9100 clocked at 3.06GHz with 44W TDP in Q3 2010 when it plans to issue product discontinuance notice and the product should reach End of Life stage in Q4 2010. This is a dual Penryn 45nm based core with 6MB of shared cache.

The second in the elimination list is Core 2 Extreme QX9300, based on Quad-Core "Penryn QC XE" with a TDP of 45W. This is a Quad core CPU with 2.53GHz and 2 times 6MB cache and it is also listed for product discontinuance notice in Q3 2010 and for end of life one quarter later.

This is not all, as Core 2 Quad Q9100 and Q9000 are also listed for product discontinuance notice in Q3 2010 and end of line in Q4 2010.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9100 works at 2.26GHz, has 2x6MB cache and naturally is made of two dual cores stitched together. The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9100 has the same features, but comes clocked at 2.0GHz and cost one third of the Q9100 price, still 45W TDP.

These CPUs will be replaced with many recently launched Lynnfield parts. Nehalem-based, automatically overclocking quad-cores and extremes definitely make a better choice over Penryn based systems.