Santa Clara (CA) - Spring cleaning in Intel's product line-up: The company said it will remove Pentium 4 workstation and server processors that carry the EM64T add-on and sell the chips from now on as part of the Pentium 500 series. The 2.80 GHz version of the desktop processor retires.

The "product discontinuance" for a total of eight Pentium 4 processors stirred some confusion among system builders and users. Intel however clarified that a range of processors that so far was offered under the marketing term "Pentium 4 Processor that supports Intel EM64T for servers & workstations" is still shipping, just using a different name.

Instead of carrying the GHz specification in their names, the P4s are integrated into the regular Pentium 4 500-series, a spokeswoman told Tom's Hardware Guide. Affected products are the 3.2 GHz (D-stepping) and 3.2F (E-stepping, xD capable), 3.4 GHz and 3.4F GHz, 3.6 GHz and 3.6F GHz as well as the 3.8F GHz model.

According to the announcement, market demand for the 64-bit Pentium 4s for servers and workstations "has shifted to higher performance processors," indicating to transition the segment to the pricier 600-series that offers twice the L2 cache (2 MByte).

Canceled and not replaced however is the 2.8 GHz (FSB 533) version of the Pentium 4, also due to "shifted" market demands. Phasing out the processor will take some time, according to the document. The last 2.8 GHz P4 will be shipped in November of this year, with last orders being accepted in August.