So farewell, Northwood. Yes, Intel has formally announced its intention to discontinue production of its top-specification 130nm desktop Pentium 4 processors, according to documents seen by The Register.

Come 19 March 2005, and OEMS, system builders and end-users will have missed by a single day their chance to order 2.8, 3.0, 3.2 and 3.4GHz 130nm Pentium 4 chips, each of which supports 800MHz frontside bus clocks and HyperThreading.

Anyone who gets their order in by 18 March 2005, can expect delivery by 19 May 2005 for tray-packed processors and 17 June 2005 for boxed parts, Intel notes.

The news comes as Taiwanese mobo makers complain of a shortage of Socket 478 chipsets from Intel. That the chip giant might want to limit the availability of 865 and 845 chipsets in favour of the 775-pin 915 and 925 series, which favour 90nm processors, would come as no surprise. And, indeed, that's what the motherboard company sources are claiming, according to a DigiTimes report.

This, they say, is annoying, since 845- and 865-based mobos account for the vast majority of our sales. Which is, of course, why Intel might need to give the market a little push... It is also expected to trim 915 series chipset prices next month to encourage their adoption even further. ®

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