NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Intel Corp. on Tuesday rolled out its newest and fastest PC microprocessors and is in the process of shifting their production to a more efficient manufacturing process.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, which is the leading supplier of PC processors, announced the availability of a desktop Pentium 4 processor operating at 2.4 gigahertz.

PCs powered by the new chips currently are available from manufacturers including Dell, Compaq and Gateway.

The new chips replace the 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 as Intel's fastest processor. But an incremental advance in processors speed is nothing new for Intel, which routinely cranks up processor clock speeds.

What is different about the 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 is that it represents the first chips Intel will manufacture using 300-millimeter silicon wafers.

Currently, Intel (INTC: down $1.02 to $30.15, Research, Estimates) cuts most of its chips out of silicon wafers that are 200 millimeters in diameter. By shifting to the 300-millimeter wafers and implementing other improvements in its manufacturing process, Intel said it can provide more than five times the amount of product on a single wafer compared with that of the initial Pentium 4 processors that it began shipping in November 2000.

"From a cost-competitive standpoint, this is really good for Intel," said Robert Manetta, a company spokesman.

Although the initial shipments of 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 chips will have been manufactured on 200-millimeter wafers, Manetta said all the production will be shifted to the larger wafer size later this month.

In addition to the larger wafers, Intel said it also has reduced the size of each of the chips cut from those wafers by about 10 percent, resulting in even further cost efficiencies.

The new chips are priced at $562 each when purchased in quantities of 1,000. But that price is likely to be lowered in coming months as the company ramps up production of the new chips.

As for PC systems powered by the new chips, Gateway was offering its 700XL desktop computer, complete with 1 gigabyte of memory, a 120 GB hard drive and an 18-inch flat-panel display, for $2,999.

Compaq is offering Presario desktops with less memory and smaller hard drives at prices ranging between $1,680 and $1,960.