Intel is shipping the Celeron with a dual-core processor. Sold for US$53 each, in quantities of 1,000 units, this is the first low-end desktop processor from Intel to ship with two cores.

Excerpt from PC World:

The 1.6GHz Celeron Dual-Core E1200 processor is based on Intel’s Core microprocessor architecture and is manufactured using a 65-nanometer process. The chip has 512K bytes of cache and uses an 800MHz front-side bus to connect with main memory and other components inside the PC.

In October of last year, I reported on Intel’s decision to phase out single-CPU production in the first quarter of 2008. I wrote then that Intel will be introducing dual-core Celeron processors to tackle the low-end price bracket. This latest move marks the fulfillment of Intel’s plans.