We have now had independent confirmation from a number of PC manufacturers that AMD will, as we reported yesterday, cut its Athlon prices on 4 October. But the cuts this time are from a position of strength, rather than weakness, according to independent vendors of the products. Athlon products are selling well, in Europe at least. While AMD was forced in the past to cut prices in order to sell products as a result of aggressive pricing strategies by Intel, this price move is part of AMD's long term strategy, we are given to understand. A few days ago, we revealed that AMD is shipping 700MHz Athlons in volume. One European manufacturer, who asked not to be named, said: "Price cuts will happen on 4 October. But they are bigger than you indicated in your article, the prices you quote are for AMD's distributor channel." According to another PC manufacturer in Germany, who also confirmed the price cuts, sales of the Athlon continue to be very strong: "There's practically no business on Intel 600Mhz at present -- all our customers are going to Athlon 600/650." And an insider at Dixons' subsidiary, PC World, said that its Athlon machines were also outselling Intel's 600MHz Pentiums. This means war, and it will be interesting to see just how far Intel is prepared to go cutting prices on its Pentium III processors. It is also likely to use every means in its extensive portfolio of disposals to prevent AMD cutting into its desktop market share. However, that may be easier said than done. All of the sources quoted in the story above sell Intel as well as AMD products... ®