Business Tech

A letter from The Securities and Exchange Commission to Intel is not likely to inspire a future episode of "24."

The June 4, 2009 letter (originally marked "confidential") to Intel from the SEC states: "We are aware of a May 2008 news report that PCs in Cuba contain your Celeron processors. Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria are identified by the State Department as state sponsors of terrorism, and are subject to U.S. economic sanctions and export controls."

Intel Celeron chips in Cuba: paging Jack Bauer? Probably not.

The letter continues. "We note that your Form 10-K does not include disclosure regarding contacts with Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. Please describe to us the nature and extent of any past, current, and anticipated contacts with the referenced countries, whether through distributors, resellers, licensees, or other direct or indirect arrangements."

The letter was cited earlier in The Wall Street Journal.

And what kind of computers are we talking about exactly? (It would strain credulity, I think, to cue in a Jack Bauer narration--"The following takes place between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m"--here.) The SEC letter offers this:

"The Cuban PCs have Intel Celeron processors with 80 gigabytes of memory (sic) and 512 RAM and are equipped with Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. Both could be violations of a U.S. trade embargo, but not something Washington can do anything about in the absence of diplomatic relations with Havana. Clerks said the PCs were assembled by Cuban companies using parts imported from China."

Maybe there's more to this than meets the eye but a lowly Celeron chip (one of Intel's bottom-of-the-performance-barrel processors) is hardly the chip to designate as a threat to national security. In short, data-crunching server farms--assuming they exist--in Cuba are not built with Celeron processors.

For the record, an excerpt from the Intel response is as follows: "Intel has no business contacts with the Subject Countries, either directly or indirectly through tacit agreement with its customers. Intel does not provide products or technology to the Subject Countries...."

A more productive line of inquiry--by another U.S. government agency--might be: Where on the world market might these countries be buying sophisticated multiprocessor computer hardware based on, for instance, the newest high-end Intel Nehalem Core i7 processors?

Now, there's an idea for a future "24" episode.

Updated on January 19 at 8:15 a.m. PST with additional information throughout.

On Sunday, Intel instituted broad price cuts on processors, spanning the Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium dual-core, Celeron, and Xeon product lines.

Some of the cuts are in response to Advanced Micro Devices' recently-introduced Phenom II "Dragon" desktop platform. AMD's Phenom II X4 940 (3.0GHz), for instance, is priced at $275.

Intel cuts were concentrated on quad-core chips like the Q9650 (3.00GHz), reduced 40 percent, to $316 from $530, to counter AMD's Phenom II. But Celeron processors received some of the largest reductions. The mobile Celeron 570 (2.00GHz), was slashed 48 percent, to $70 from $134, for example.

Some Xeon processors also received hefty cuts. The price on the X3370 (3.00GHz), for instance, was cut 40 percent to $316 from $530.

The Pentium dual-core E5200 was reduced 24 percent to $64 from $84.

The mobile Core 2 Duo P8600 was shaved 13 percent, to $209 from $241. The P series of mobile Core 2 Duo processors have a thermal envelope (Thermal Design Power or TDP) of 25 watts versus 35 watts for mainstream mobile chips.

Intel also introduced new processor models such as the desktop Core 2 Duo E7500 (2.93GHz), priced at $133 and the Core 2 Quad Q9550s (2.83GHz), which is a low-power variant--with a thermal envelope of 65 watts--of the 95-watt Q9550.

The new Asus Eee Box B203 is powered by the Intel Celeron processor instead of the Intel Atom featured in previous versions.

(Credit: Asus)

Asus has beefed up its Eee Box line with the addition of a Celeron-based B203.

As expected, Asus' new Nettop is largely unchanged from the B202, but it features a budget-minded Intel Celeron 220 CPU, instead of the Intel Atom found in earlier versions. Asus also increased the hard-drive options in the new model, offering a 120GB and 160GB version in addition to the 80GB offered in previous versions.

The B203 comes with four USB ports, a flash card reader, a DVI output, and Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity. The Nettop runs Windows XP Home, but Asus recommends Windows Vista.

Pricing wasn't available on Asus' Web site on Sunday night, but the processor change is expected to drop the cost of the Eee Box from $350 to $240, allowing the small form-factor desktop to better compete with similarly low-cost desktops and laptops.

Intel updated its processor pricing list with low-cost quad-core and Core 2 Duo desktop processors. A new Celeron D model was also listed.

Intel lists the Q8200 at $224, one of the least expensive quad-core chips that the company now offers. The venerable Q6600 is the only Core 2 Quad that is less expensive.

The 45-nanometer processor has a core clock speed of 2.33GHz and 4MB of cache memory. This is a relatively small amount of cache memory as most Intel desktop quads offered now come with 6MB, 8MB, or 12MB of cache memory. Generally, the more cache memory the better the performance.

The chip has a front-side bus speed of 1333 MHz. The front-side bus carries data between the processor and other silicon.

Intel also shows a new E series Core 2 Duo processor. The E5200 is priced at $84, the lowest-cost Core 2 Duo chip on the list. It has a core clock speed of 2.5GHz, 2MB of cache memory, and an 800MHz front-side bus.

Intel also lists a new Celeron D processor for $53. The 450 slots in above the current 440. The 450 runs at 2.2GHz, has 512K of cache memory, and an 800MHz front-side bus.

The Intel processor pricing list was updated on August 31.