CPU prices go into free fall on spot market

The spot market is the place where items are traded at more realistic prices than the semiconductor companies that make them would like. We're not saying that prices put out by semiconductor companies are unrealistic, just that sometimes they seem a tad high for the market which uses them (PC manufacturers) as a whole. The NECX market, based in New York, is reporting today that a number of parts from Intel are falling on the spot market. This time last week, practically every part was stable. The falling parts include the Pentium II/350, which it quotes at a price of $159, the PII/400 at $196, and the PII/400 secc2 at $193. The market notes that the 450MHz PII parts from Intel are also falling in price at around $250 or so, while even the formerly stable 500MHz parts are costing around $450. The new PIII/550 is also reported as falling in price, even though it's only been out for a couple of weeks. Celeron processors, apart from the 433A with SEPP packaging, are stable, with the plastic packaging (370-pin version) costing $127. The K6-2 333+ now costs $53, NECX reports, while the 350+ at $53 is also falling in price. AMD positions the K6-2 platform against Celerons, as we reported yesterday. ®