Intel expected to cut Pentium 4 prices over weekend
Reuters
(01/25/02, 04:44:01 PM EST)
SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel Corp. is expected to cut prices on its highest-performance Pentium 4 processors and other chips over the weekend as the world's largest chipmaker passes on cost savings from new manufacturing technologies, analysts said.
``We would expect that they're going to reduce prices,'' said Joe Osha of Merrill Lynch. ``Intel's going to try and price things to make sure they're moving people to Northwood.''
Northwood is the code name for Santa Clara, California-based Intel's newest Pentium 4 chip, in which some of the dimensions are as small as 0.13 microns. By comparison, a human hair is about 50 microns wide.
By moving to smaller line widths, Intel is able to put 55 million transistors on a single chip, and it has said it gets about twice as many chips per wafer on the 0.13 micron manufacturing process than with the 0.18 micron process.
The fastest Pentium 4 chip now runs at 2.2 billion cycles per second, or 2.2 gigahertz, costing $562 in lots of 1,000. When Intel introduced that chip on Jan. 7, it dropped the price of its 2.0 gigahertz Pentium 4 made with 0.18 micron technology to $342.
``If the 2.2 gigahertz Pentium 4 is above $500 on Monday I'll be very surprised,'' said Nathan Brookwood, president of market research firm Insight 64. He estimated that Intel will drop the price of that processor to the high $400 range, implying a decrease of about 15 percent.
An Intel spokesman declined to comment on the price cuts.
``This is a very normal, seasonal kind of thing,'' Brookwood said, adding the prices will also come down on Intel's 2A Pentium 4 processors, the 2.0 gigahertz Pentium 4, the 1.9 gigahertz Pentium 4 and the 1.8 gigahertz Pentium 4.
Those processors are now priced at $364, $342, $273 and $225, respectively, according to Intel's price list published on its Web site.
Intel typically introduces new processors at the beginning of January, then drops prices on them later in the month. Another round will come in April, when Intel introduces even faster Pentium 4 processors.
``In April we'll see some new, faster Pentium 4s, and they'll show up at this $500 to $600 price range,'' Brookwood said.
www.ebnews.com/story/OEG20020125S0089
Reuters
(01/25/02, 04:44:01 PM EST)
SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel Corp. is expected to cut prices on its highest-performance Pentium 4 processors and other chips over the weekend as the world's largest chipmaker passes on cost savings from new manufacturing technologies, analysts said.
``We would expect that they're going to reduce prices,'' said Joe Osha of Merrill Lynch. ``Intel's going to try and price things to make sure they're moving people to Northwood.''
Northwood is the code name for Santa Clara, California-based Intel's newest Pentium 4 chip, in which some of the dimensions are as small as 0.13 microns. By comparison, a human hair is about 50 microns wide.
By moving to smaller line widths, Intel is able to put 55 million transistors on a single chip, and it has said it gets about twice as many chips per wafer on the 0.13 micron manufacturing process than with the 0.18 micron process.
The fastest Pentium 4 chip now runs at 2.2 billion cycles per second, or 2.2 gigahertz, costing $562 in lots of 1,000. When Intel introduced that chip on Jan. 7, it dropped the price of its 2.0 gigahertz Pentium 4 made with 0.18 micron technology to $342.
``If the 2.2 gigahertz Pentium 4 is above $500 on Monday I'll be very surprised,'' said Nathan Brookwood, president of market research firm Insight 64. He estimated that Intel will drop the price of that processor to the high $400 range, implying a decrease of about 15 percent.
An Intel spokesman declined to comment on the price cuts.
``This is a very normal, seasonal kind of thing,'' Brookwood said, adding the prices will also come down on Intel's 2A Pentium 4 processors, the 2.0 gigahertz Pentium 4, the 1.9 gigahertz Pentium 4 and the 1.8 gigahertz Pentium 4.
Those processors are now priced at $364, $342, $273 and $225, respectively, according to Intel's price list published on its Web site.
Intel typically introduces new processors at the beginning of January, then drops prices on them later in the month. Another round will come in April, when Intel introduces even faster Pentium 4 processors.
``In April we'll see some new, faster Pentium 4s, and they'll show up at this $500 to $600 price range,'' Brookwood said.
www.ebnews.com/story/OEG20020125S0089
