by Anna Filatova
01/18/2002 | 06:30 PM
According to our reliable sources, Intel is going to reduce the processor prices twice. The price drop will touch upon the desktop, server and mobile processors. The first wave of price reductions is to take place in two days, on January 20, and will deal with mobile processors only:
| CPU | Current price | After January 20, 2002 | Price reduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pentium III-M 1.20GHz (0.13micron, L2=512KB) | $722 | $508 | 29% |
| Pentium III-M 1.13GHz (0.13micron, L2=512KB) | $508 | $401 | 21% |
| Pentium III-M 1.06GHz (0.13micron, L2=512KB) | $401 | $294 | 27% |
| Pentium III-M 1GHz (0.13micron, L2=512KB) | $294 | $241 | 18% |
| Pentium III 1GHz (0.18micron, L2=256KB) | $321 | $268 | 17% |
| Pentium III-M 993GHz (0.18micron, L2=256KB) | $241 | $198 | 18% |
This relatively large price reduction on mobile Pentium III should prepare the market for the announcement of the next Pentium III-M CPU (on Tualatin-512 core) working at 1.26GHz. Although Intel plans this processor for the second half of this year, they want to make the entire Pentium III-M family so cheap, that it could be targeted for a different price category than the Pentium 4-M coming out in March 2002.
We would also like to point out that the mobile Celeron family will not get any cheaper this month.
As for the second price drop, Intel plans it to take place a week later after the first price drop: on January 27. On that day we will see the prices on some server and desktop CPUs go down:
| CPU | Current price | After January 20, 2002 | Price reduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pentium 4 | |||
| Pentium 4 1.9GHz (0.18micron, L2=256KB) | $273 | $241 | 12% |
| Pentium 4 1.8GHz (0.18micron, L2=256KB) | $225 | $193 | 14% |
| Pentium 4 1.7GHz (0.18micron, L2=256KB) | $193 | $163 | 16% |
| Pentium 4 1.6GHz (0.18micron, L2=256KB) | $163 | $133 | 18% |
| Celeron | |||
| Celeron 1.3GHz (0.13micron, L2=256KB) | $118 | $103 | 13% |
| Celeron 1.2GHz (0.13micron, L2=256KB) | $103 | $89 | 14% |
| Celeron 1.1GHz (0.18micron, L2=128KB) | $89 | $79 | 11% |
| Celeron 1GHz (0.18micron, L2=128KB) | $74 | $69 | 7% |
| Xeon | |||
| Xeon 2.0GHz (0.18micron, L2=256KB) | $455 | $396 | 13% |
| Xeon 1.7GHz (0.18micron, L2=256KB) | $256 | $224 | 13% |
| Pentium III-S | |||
| Pentium III-S 1.26GHz (0.13micron L2=512KB) | $241 | $202 | 16% |
| Pentium III-S 1.13GHz (0.13micron L2=512KB) | $202 | $170 | 16% |
The reasons for this price drop are also evident. The cost of a 0.18micron Pentium 4 Xeon processors (except Pentium 4 2.0GHz, which has already got cheaper in early January) will be reduced to activate their sales after the launching of faster processor models manufactured with 0.13micron technology and featuring larger 512KB L2 cache.
Pentium III-S CPUs will also get cheaper giving way to younger Xeon processors and Celeron family is getting ready to welcome new members with Pentium 4 architecture in Q3 2002.