Intel is to grow its line of 945 chipset with a low-end part due to ship early next year.

Unnamed sources cited by DigiTimes say the part, the 945GZ, will integrated Intel's GMA 950 graphics chip but, unlike the currently available 945G integrated chipset, will not support an external graphics card too.

The low-end chipset will also provide only a single DDR 2 memory channel, and drive a frontside bus no faster than 800MHz. The 945GZ will ship, the report suggests, in Q1 2006, around the time that Intel launches its 65nm dual-core desktop chip, 'Presler', and its single-core sibling 'Cedar Mill'.

It's these parts, with their anticipated power consumption advantages over the current generation of Pentium processor, that are likely to make their way into Apple's x86-based Macs next year. Ditto the 65nm Pentium M, 'Yonah'.

Come Q1 2006, and today's Pentium D products will have moved down-market, almost certainly using the Celeron brand, ready for a lower end chipset of the kind the 945GZ appears to be.

Intel recently pulled the same trick with its 915 chipset, releasing low-end 915GV and 910GL versions of its mainstream part. ®

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