AMD piles on Intel pressure with 750MHz Athlon

Sources close to AMD's plans have told The Register that it will introduce its 750MHz Athlon on the 29th of this month. That will be prefaced by a further bout of advertising from AMD on the 27th of this month, intended once more to contrast the performance and price of its Athlon processor against Intel's Pentium III. And to further add to Intel's gloom, figures from distribution here in the UK indicate that the Athlon has now grabbed 35 per cent of market share against the Pentium III. AMD's introduction of the 750MHz Athlon is likely to see some price adjustments on the other members of its high end family. As we reported last Friday, Intel will cut the price of its new Coppermine parts on the 12th of December partly, we understand, to counter the effects of recent AMD wins. According to information we have received, both Compaq and Fujitsu-Siemens will introduce Athlon PCs in week 50, while Gateway is also strongly tipped to introduce a PC based on AMD's top end processor soon. These wins are likely to give AMD a much higher profile in the market and also cause other PC manufacturers to re-consider the processor as a second-source option for machines. Meanwhile, speculation is mounting that Intel may bring the launch of its 800MHz Coppermine Pentium III even further forward in Q1 of next year, and time it to coincide with another bout of price cuts towards the end of January. ®