Slow demise
As the Core 2 Quad Q6600 progresses through its third year of service, its continuing popularity must be viewed with mixed emotions by Intel, which would presumably like people to start buying some of its newer processors now.
With that in mind Intel has officially announced the discontinuation of the Q6600, but it's going to take much of this year to complete. So it seems rumours of its death have been somewhat exaggerated.
The image below is taken from an Intel product change notification document published on 5th January in reference to the Q6600. As you can see, both OEMs (tray) and the channel (boxed) will be able to order the Q6600 up until 8th May 2009.
Furthermore, while boxed processors will cease shipping on 7th August, tray will apparently keep shipping until the middle of next year and Intel authorised distributors will still be able to order tray processors after the boxed ones have run out.
