Intel is likely to start shipping its new 865 (Springdale), 875 (Canterwood) chipsets and the 800MHz FSB (front-side bus) Pentium 4 processors in March at the earliest, according to industry sources. The official launch date for these products, however, will be later.
For the new platform, Intel is said to plan to release both 533MHz and 800MHz FSB versions for processors running at clock speeds of 2.66GHz and above. Its chipset offerings also include both RAID-enabled and disabled editions for each chipset in the 865 and 875 lines. Chipsets with RAID are priced US$3 higher than the non-RAID products.
Prior to introduction of the new Springdale platform, Intel has scheduled to cut its processor prices on February 23 and chipset prices on March 30. With new product releases and price cuts, Intel is expected to push the clock speed of its entry-level models from 1.8/2GHz up to 2.2/2.4GHz.