The end of October has been confirmed as the launch date for Intel's Willamette, aka Pentium 4. As we reported a couple of months back, the original launch date for the chip was to be the middle of October, but for what we assume to be marketing considerations, that date has now slipped to the very end of the month.

US sources today claimed that October 30th would be the big day for Intel's new baby. Pricing and clock speeds remain the only details yet to be revealed, our estimates being around $990 for the 1.5GHz part and $840 for the lesser 1.4GHz. Pentium III prices should also drop at the same time, with current top banana, the 1GHz, dipping below $500 for the first time. ®