Chipzilla likes to keep its OEMs appraised of price changes and new product introductions well ahead of time. Hardly ever does the chip behemoth move the goalposts. Well, hardly ever. The Register has in its possession detailed roadmaps and price lists stretching out far into the future (nine months at least) about clock speeds, form factors and prices. But the wheels come off when Chipzilla Central throws a wobbler due to upstarts like AMD and, er… AMD (no one else left?) having the barefaced cheek to introduce new chips and cut prices. When that happens, Intel has a rather sophisticated response. It just knocks a couple of months off the headings of its price move tables, so that price reductions scheduled for August now happen in June. Some of the more rabid publications might surmise that new and wonderful chips will suddenly be launched into an unsuspecting marketplace, but even the Great Stan of Chips can’t deliver a 500MHz Celeron next week instead of September, or a 700MHz PIII a week next Tuesday. Prices may change, but silicon moves more slowly. Especially at 133MHz FSB. ®