Intel has begun shipping its latest top-of-the-line 65nm dual-core Pentium D desktop processor, the 3.6GHz 960. The chip maker has yet to launch the part formally, though it did get a casual mention in CEO Paul Otellini's analyst day presentation last week.

The 960 was expected to ship late April, and that indeed appears to have been the case despite Intel's own lack of fanfare. Presumably, the company is keener now to promote the upcoming 'Conroe' desktop chip, due to ship in July and which it claims will deliver 40 per cent more performance than the 960.

Current 960 pricing suggests that Intel is offering the part for the anticipated $637 when sold in trays of 1000 processors. The older 9xx series chips will have come down in price accordingly, though Intel has yet to update its public price list to reflect the change.

Like other 9xx Pentium Ds, the 960 supports an 800MHz frontside bus clock frequency, has twin 2MB L2 caches, and supports Intel's Virtualisation Technology, Enhanced SpeedStep, 64-bit addressing and the execute-disable bit. ®