Celeron accelerated as chip market decelerates

A year ago From The Register 17 May 1998 Chip giant Intel has once more re-scheduled the introduction of its Celeron range of processors for the entry level market by slotting in a 300MHz part in Autumn. This further increases doubts on its ability to compete using its current business model. Two weeks ago, we reported that Intel had confirmed it would now ship a 333MHz processor in the fourth quarter of this year, including 128K of second level cache on the unit. The reason Intel representatives gave for the early introduction of its so-called Mendocino part was a rapid ramp up in its .25 micron process technology, but it is likely that market forces have played an equally important part. In the same report, we said that while Intel's initial Celeron part had only a lukewarm reception when launched last month, over 40 vendors would ship faster products at the launch date in June. The changes to the Intel roadmap are likely to mean further shuffling in prices of the Celeron and other processors. Other reasons for the move are to do with vastly increased competition from competitors AMD and National Semiconductor, which are threatening Intel's domination of the increasingly more important sub-$1,000 market. ®