A fresh round of price cuts from both AMD and Intel is set to benefit consumers shortly but will draw more blood from the protagonists in an increasingly bitter struggle. Sources said that AMD will drop the price of its top-of-the-range processor, the Athlon 700MHz part, from around $835 to a rather spooky $666 on the 24th of October. There is also likely to be a 750MHz part introduced soon -- AMD has always said it will scale its Athlons quickly. That large price reduction will be reflected in AMD's other range of processors, and is a clear attempt to distract the market's attention from Intel's introduction of .18 micron (Coppermine) technology for mobile, desktop and Xeon processors, which is set to take place the day after. But Intel is continuing to press on with its aggressive policy of slashing processor prices. Sources close to the firm said that it will once more cut Celeron chip prices on the 7th November. The low-end parts are already bargain-basement items, but Intel can afford to take the hit on Celerons as it ramps up Coppermine PIIIs throughout this year and well into next. Although we believe that Intel will revisit Pentium III prices on the day of its Coppermine launch, there is a much bigger price revision expected on the 12th of December next, we can confirm. On this day, Intel will take a fine toothcomb to its lengthy list of Pentium III processor and select further candidates for the Gulag. The big revision on the 12th of December will allow us to stand on the Pentium II platform and wave the successful processor a fond farewell. Although we do not yet have details of the Celeron drops on the 7th November and the Pentium III arrangements on the 12th of December yet, we will have, soon. ® See also Intel Coppermine mobiles: we got the prices Coppermine: we got the prices