The supply of Pentium III processors is now very tight, writes our spot market watcher, Marco Fumagalli. But, on the other hand, motherboards using the 845 chipset are already arriving in the spot market - not just the big names but also Taiwanese second tier companies, indicating that the chipset has been available for months. Intel is turning the screw on supplies of the Pentium III microprocessor, as first reported here. The 933MGHz Pentium III and the 1GHz Pentium III have virtually disappeared from the marketplace since last week, after jumping a clear 10 per cent last week on their July and August prices. The Pentium 4 1.5GHz is available on the spot market at $130, and at $120 for the 1.4GHz P4, so in combination with the i845 this allows for highly competitive pricing. The AMD 1.4GHz chip is generally available at $110, and this goes some way to explain why Intel cut its Pentium 4 prices so far down. The 1.2GHz sells for around $90. However, the scarcity of Pentium III processors is driving demand on Athlon K7, and there are some local European shortages.