Many local companies have been caught off-guard as Intel is bringing forward its next round of price cuts and positioning the high-end 2.8GHz Pentium 4 chip to enter the mainstream. The chip giant has decided to cut its existing P4 processor prices on February 1, ahead of the planned February 15. In this round of price cuts, the 2.8GHz P4 will be priced the same as the current mainstream 2.6GHz chip. The price of the 2.6GHz chip will remain unchanged.
Intel's decision is believed to make way for a faster adoption of its 90nm-processed P4 chip – the Prescott. However, its strategy will leave downstream players with pressure to clear their inventory of 2.6GHz P4s. Intel will roll out Prescott processors in the second quarter and has set an aggressive target to capture 40% of the desktop PC processor market with the line before year-end.
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News source: DigiTimes
