AMD desktop cuts may prompt early Intel move
 

PRICE CUTS AMD is making on a range of its desktop products on the 23rd of January and again on the 13th of February could force Intel to shift its proposed cuts earlier in the cycle.

Although Intel, according to the most recent roadmaps seen by the INQ, has Celeron price cuts ready for the 22nd of January, it hadn't proposed slashing prices on its top end 9X series until the 23rd of April as part of its normal "cascade" strategy. It does plan to cut the price of its 840 processor, which clocks at 3.2GHz and has 2x1MB cache on the 22nd.

Intel told its partners it planned to introduce the 960 on the 23rd of April. This is a 3.6GHz dual core 800MHz microprocessor. But as it only introduced the 950 series on the 1st of January, we'd suggest an early price cut is unlikely.

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