Boxed Intel P4s not available for love nor money?

Boxed versions of Intel's Pentium 4 processors appear to be rather hard to get hold of at the moment.

According to resellers, Intel is telling anyone who wants to order a 1.7GHz P4 they'll have to wait at least four weeks for it - no matter how many they order, The Inquirer reports.

There are also reports that all the other versions of the P4 - 1.3GHz, 1.4GHz and 1.5GHz - are also in short supply, with the latter particularly hard to get hold of.

All of which sounds like Intel is having to focus its efforts on supplying its PC-producing customers, which suggests that its recent price cuts are having the desired effect: demand for the P4 line is accelerating.

Certainly, Taiwanese mobo makers recently said they expect the cuts - the second Intel imposed during April - to boost demand.

An Intel spokesman denied there was any P4 supply problem. "We've shipped over one million of them," he said, and added that the company is able to "support" its distributors with all four P4s. ®

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