14 DAY TRIAL // The recently published price list for the newly-introduced Atom processors might shed new light over the future of the Skulltrail processor. Despite the fact that it is one of the most powerful CPUs commercially available on the market, its availability might reach a premature end.
Intel's updated price list especially released for the Atom chips also mentions the Skulltrail CPU Core 2 Extreme QX9775, that comes with a price tag of no less than $1,499.
The processor is $100 more expensive than its high-end sibling in the QX9770 family, despite the fact that the two chips share the same technical specifications, except for the CPU socket. Both processors come with 12 MB of L2 cache, an internal clock speed of 3.2 GHz and Front Side Bus support of up to 1600 MHz.
The price list, however, claims that the QX9775 comes in a Socket 775 package, which seems to be wrong, given the fact that it is designed to work on a Socket 771 (Socket J) motherboard. More than that, the QX9775 is placed in the Xeon family, that comes in a Socket 771 package. Intel touts the QX9775 as being the only Core 2 Extreme chip that is designed to work with the Skulltrail motherboard.
Intel's listing of the QX9775 as a Socket 775 part might be a simple error, or it might reflect Intel's refuse to create a special column for the Socket 771 family. If the latter scenario proves to be true, then the chip manufacturer might phase out production of its Skulltrail chips.
Terminating a dual-CPU project aimed at the enthusiast market is not big news, given the fact that AMD has done the same with its previous enthusiast platform, called QuadFX. The really bad news is that users will be left with no Socket 771 chips to populate their Skulltrail boards, as the Xeon family is to be axed in favor of the upcoming Nehalem micro-architecture.