Intel to Retire More LGA 1156 CPUs in 2012

Intel continues to make room in its product lineup for new processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture and recently announced that 2012 will mark the retirement of several LGA 1156 CPUs, including the Core i7-870.

The chip maker has announced its decision through a series of Product Change Notification (PCN) documents and this covers no less than seven Core i7, i5 and i3 chips as well as two Pentium processors.

These are the Core i3-540, the Core i5-650, i5-660, i5-670, and i5-680 as well as the Core i7- 860 and i7-870, while the Pentium processors in question are the Pentium G6950, and G6960.

Customers can place orders for these chips until June 29 of 2012. The last shipments of tray CPUs will be sent towards customers on December 7, 2012, while boxed CPUs will be shipped as long as supplies last.

Outside of the two Core i7 parts, all the other i5 and i3 SKUs are based on the Clarkdale architecture which was introduced in January of 2010 during the CES fair.

These were Intel’s first processors to be built using the 32nm fabrication process and also featured a new design approach that included both the PCI Express controller and the memory controller as well as a graphics core inside the processor.

The GPU is placed on a separate die built using the 45nm production node and it connects to the processor via the chip's memory interface.

Intel hasn't mentioned any replacements for the discontinued products, but currently there are plenty of other options from which users can choose from.

In related news, just two days ago, the Santa Clara chip maker also announced that 2012 will mark the retirement of the P55, H55 and H57 chipsets supporting the LGA 1156 socket.

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