Probably the most popular and best selling quad-core of all time, the 65nm Kentsfield-based Q6600 is walking toward its retirement. Intel has informed its partners that it scheduled a Product Discontinuance Notice for December and that the real End of life for this CPU is Q1 2009.

At the same time, Intel plans to retire Q6700 with the same schedule and Q9450 will receive Product Discontinuance Notice in November with the scheduled End of life for Q1 2009. Core 2 Quad Q9450 is 45nm-based and it will be replaced by the slowest Nehalem, Core i7 920 that will work at the same clock, but it will end up a bit faster due to eight thread support and some architecture advantages.

Intel plans a massive change in the next quarter and it has warned its partners that it wants to retire many 65nm-based and some 45nm Core 2 Duos. This doesn’t comes as a surprise, as Intel is ramping up its 45nm production and you can expect more and more 45nm-based CPUs to take over the market from the 65nm ones.

In November, Intel plans to announce Product Discontinuance Notices for E8300, E8200, E8190, E6850, E6750, E6550, E6540 and E4600. Core 2 Duo E4700 will receive Product Discontinuance Notice status in December as will as seven of its brothers, and it will go to the happy hunting ground in Q1 2009. It is interesting to notice that eight series are based on 45nm Wolfdale cores.