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1GHz war not over, Intel claims

High volume PIIIs to halve in price by October

Only one day after we received information from a US OEM of a price drop on AMD 1GHz Athlons in early September, we have now learned that Intel will take retaliatory action the next month, in a classic Tweedledum-Tweedledee move.

June roadmaps seen by The Register indicate that August will see Intel finally ramp up production of its 1GHz Pentium III, as reported here earlier.

On 29 October, it will price its 1GHz CuMine at around $450/1000, to take advantage of the ramp.

Other additions to the roadmap include a 766MHz Celeron in the last quarter of this year, the introduction of a Celeron 800MHz in Q1 of next year, and Celeron speeds of over 800MHz following that in the second quarter.

All of the above is good news for the end user, but suggests that it is going to be even more difficult than before to choose the right time to buy the right PC.

For example, in early October, according to this June roadmap, the price delta between the 866MHz and 850MHz Pentium IIIs will be considerable narrowed to "encourage" a movement to the 133MHz frontside bus.

In Intelspeak, this means that the 850MHz is taking a back place in future Intel plans.

The 1.1GHz Pentium III which Intel agreed will arrive at the end of this month, will come in the SECC 2 (slut one) package.

Much more on the latest roadmaps we have seen tomorrow, but in the meantime, the distributor and dealer market has not yet heard the last of Intel fumble-ups.

They were told in April, as reported here, that plentiful supplies of CuMines in boxes could not be expected until the third quarter. But, in the meantime, their manufacturing machine is not all it might be. The channel has just had this missive from Santa Centrale:

"Cartridge Mislabeling for Boxed Intel(r) Pentium(r) III Processor at 933 MHz in the S.E.C.C.2 Package

"July 10, 2000

"During the week of July 10, 2000 a limited number of boxed Intel(r) Pentium(r) III processors at 933 MHz in the S.E.C.C.2 package were produced with a printing error on the cartridge. The cartridge markings indicate a voltage of 1.65V. The correct voltage is 1.70V.

"The majority of motherboards "auto-select" the voltage and the processor will be automatically run at 1.70 volts. Should the voltage setting of the
motherboard require intervention by the integrator, the voltage for this processor should be set to 1.70 volts.

"As always, please refer to the Specification Update as the definitive source of technical information on boxed Intel Pentium III processors." ®

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