Could AMD ship K-6 350 MHz by Q4 in any meaningful volume?
Intel Roadmap Signals New Strategies
Mark Harrington
207.240.177.145
11:25 AM EDT, Fri., July 17, 1998
Intel will effectively move its entire Pentium II lineup to a 100MHz bus speed by October's end, while implementing a steep price cut on its Pentium II 350MHz chip in September, according to a roadmap shown to CRW.
By the time it implements an October 25 price drop, Intel will have three Pentium II chips left in its lineup, the 450MHz, 400MHz and 350MHz versions, with prices of $550, $370 and $210. While the roadmap continues to list 333MHz and 300MHz iterations of the Pentium II until October, their pricing matches that of the 350MHz, making the former two unviable. Pentium II 233MHz and 266MHz chips disappear from the lineup at the end of October.
The movement of all models to 100MHz bus speeds was interpreted by one market watcher as a strategy to increase third-party production of 100MHz bus-enabled motherboards. An Intel OEM said the chip-maker can spur the market if economies of scale allow motherboard makers to reduce their prices, which are currently around 20 percent more than 66MHz bus-based systems.
The heavier-than-expected price drop on the Pentium II 350MHz was viewed as necessary to jump-start sales of the processor, the OEM said. The processor, which cost $510 after a June 7 price cut, will be lowered to $415 on July 26 before taking a dramatic cut to $290 on September 13.
The new Pentium II 450MHz will start at $656 when it ships in September, then drop to $550 at October's end.
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