Intel continues driving MPU prices down

Electronic News, May 6, 1996

Santa Clara, Calif.--Following its pattern of announcing new quarterly pricing for its microprocessors, Intel has lowered the prices of its MPUs by up to approximately 40 percent on its high-end Pentium Pro processors, with the top of the line 200MHz Pentium Pro priced at $1,217, down 20 percent from $1,528 the previous quarter. The 166MHz Pentium Pro with 512-kilobyte cache is down more than 39 percent from $1,319 to $809.

Other Pentium Pro pricing: the 200MHz Pentium Pro with 256KB cache fell 30 percent from $1,018 to $707; the 180MHz Pentium Pro with 256KB cache dropped 34 percent to $600, while the 150MHz Pro fell at the same rate, 34 percent, from $804 to $534. All prices are for PGA packaging.

For the Pentium processor, the top-end 166MHz version, introduced earlier this year along with the 150MHz Pentium (EN, Jan. 8) is now $498, down from $632 in February, while the entry-level 75MHz Pentium is the only chip that remained unchanged at $106. Other Pentium pricing: the 150MHz Pentium slid 15 percent from $428 to $364; the 133MHz version slipped 20 percent from $321 to $257; the 120MHz Pentium dropped from $292 to $188, or 36 percent; while the prices of both the 100MHz and 90MHz devices fell 32 percent from $198 to $134.

In addition, the company for the first time added to its quarterly price list its mobile versions Pentium processors. The most recently introduced 133MHz Pentium mobile processor (EN, March 11) is priced at $307 in both TCP and PGA packages, while the 120MHz version is selling for $208 for both packages; and the 100MHz version is priced at $106 in TCP and $134 in PGA packages. The 90MHz and 75MHz Pentiums for mobile systems together were the first mobile Pentiums when they were introduced almost exactly one year ago (EN, May 29, 1995). Today the 90MHz device is $106 in TCP and $134 in PGA packages; and the 75MHz entry-level mobile Pentium is $85 in TCP package and $106 in PGA package.