Those readers who have been paying attention will remember that today's the day for the latest batch of flip-chip Celerons to be released. Incoming! Intel goes launch crazy.

Here are the fascinating facts:

Celeron 700 MHz = $192 (1Ku), 667 MHz = $170 (1Ku), 633 MHz = $136 (1Ku). All FCPGA built on 0.18 micron.

The only surprise is that the 700MHz variant (brought forward from September to combat that pesky Duron) is released at the same old slug-like 66MHz FSB when the clever money was on it being the first 100MHz FSB Celeron part.

It's not easy to see why Intel hasn't taken the opportunity to up Celeron's FSB. It's a marketing, not a technical, issue and the cash cow high-end Pentium IIIs now run in 133MHz systems, so moving Celeron to 100MHz would still leave a perceived performance gap for the marketers to get their pearly whites into.

With Timna, Chipzilla's next generation entry level chip, slipping ever further into the future, Celeron will have to make the leap to a faster system bus if Intel isn't to be left behind by Duron at the low end.

So why not now? ®