Another month, another round of price cuts from microprocessor heavyweight Intel. The company announced sweeping price cuts on Monday that affect its Pentium II chips. Or, as the company said in a statement, "Continued strong acceptance of Pentium II processors enables Intel to aggressively ramp these products into higher volume price points." If its seems like Intel is cutting prices every month, not every quarter like they used to, that's because they are: Intel has divided its chips into market segments and one segment will cut a price cut every month.
And this month, it's the Pentium II. The high-end Pentium II 400 dropped 18%, from $589 to $482. The biggest drop, however, was the 350 MHz Pentium II, which dropped 29% to $299. Intel says the new pricing, which affects all Pentium II chips, goes into effect today so system prices from major vendors such as Dell and Compaq should be changed immediately.
By the way, mobile Pentium prices were also affected, with price cuts ranging from 20-34%. The 266 MHz mobile Pentium dropped the most, from $241 to $159. Celeron prices, except for the soon-to-be discontinued 300 MHz version with no cache, stayed the same
