All good things must come to an end - a sentiment close to the heart of many a multi-billion dollar chip maker. And none more so than AMD which is poised to send its 500MHz Athlon part packing once January has bid us farewell. In preparation for the 500's demise, AMD is to cut the price of its 550MHz Athlon part on 23 January, as originally reported on Web site AMD Zone, last month. Robin Varley, Microtronica's AMD product manager, said: "All road maps presented by AMD showed the 500 falls off at the end of January. The 550 was always going to be the new entry level processor." The price drop comes as AMD introduce two new high-end processors taking the Athlon range to 800MHz. Executives from AMD were not prepared to comment, at press time. ® Related stories: 800MHz Athlon hits Intel in the face Intel-AMD speed wars megahurtz too much