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Intel to maintain 775-pin P4 prices to 2005 - report

Despite proximity of faster, cheaper AMD rivals

Intel will not be cutting the price of its Socket T Pentium 4 chips before 2005, the chip giant has told customers.

So claim Taiwanese mobo maker sources cited by DigiTimes today.

Intel last lowered the prices of its 90nm, 775-pin P4 line on 22 August, and it was anticipated that the chip maker would do so again, later this month to boost sales during the run-up to Christmas.

AMD is expected to announce a round of desktop price cuts later this month, accompanied by the arrival of the Athlon 64 4000+ and the Athlon 64 FX-55, clocked to 2.4GHz and 2.6GHz, respectively. Both will sport 1MB of L2 cache and dual-channel memory controllers.

Intel itself is known to be preparing an updated P4 Extreme Edition chip with support for a 1066MHz frontside bus, and 2MB of on-die L3 cache. It is expected to be clocked to 3.46GHz. This part is fabbed at 130nm, like the two new AMD chips. Intel is also believed to be preparing a 90nm P4 EE part, with 2MB of L2 cache and a clock frequency of 3.73GHz.

These, presumably, are considered sufficient incentive to drive demand through to the end of 2004. No reason was given for the alleged price cuts no-no, though the ongoing industry-wide inventory correction, with its knock-on effect on Intel's Q3 revenues, may have persuaded Intel that now is not the time to be cutting prices.

And the report doesn't mention Socket 478 P4s, which Intel is eager to get rid of in order to make the transition to Socket T. ®

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