Intel releases Pentium, Pentium Pro price sked

Electronic News, Feb 3, 1997 by Jim DeTar

Santa Clara, Calif.--Intel has released February pricing information for its line of Pentium and Pentium Pro microprocessors. The new pricing information comes six months after Intel's last major price reductions on its Pentium line and two months after a round of new Pentium Pro prices.

Last summer, Intel said it was changing the timing of release for its Pentium MPU prices, because release of Pentium pricing in the fall had the effect of unsettling the market during the critical PC holiday buying season, from October to December. As a result, the company had not substantially changed Pentium prices since last July.

The prices released last week were said by some industry observers to be reflective of Intel's continuing dominant position in the MPU market--Intel has an estimated 80-plus percent of all microprocessor socket sales--and a bid to keep competitors Advanced Micro Devices and Cyrix from gaining a significant toehold in the market. Both AMD and Cyrix are expected to begin shipping their respective K6 and M2 Pentium Pro competitors shortly.

However, prices on Intel's entry-level 100MHz Pentiums in all packages remained unchanged. Prices for Intel's 120MHz Pentiums in all packages did slip from $134 last July for the desktop version down to $106, and from $144 for the mobile systems version to $106. This would not necessarily reflect a pricing assault by Intel however, some observers said. In fact, Intel in the past has routinely pushed down prices for its MPUs on average from 10-40 percent a quarter depending on model and speed.

Mike Griffith, In-Stat senior microprocessor analyst, commented: "Intel is trying to transition the Pentium Pro from the server to the desktop, and they have to drive the prices down." Mr. Griffith noted, however, that although the price cuts seemed to be across the board and not targeted toward any specific segment, AMD and Cyrix are likely to respond to cuts at the low end where they compete with Intel now.

"Comparing numbers with December 1996, it looks to me like their (Intel's) price cut is pretty much across the board. It's not specific to the low end of the line. Comparing AMD's pricing, for example, on a 133 (MHz performance level) Pentium-class processor, AMD was very much below Intel. Intel before its price cut was about $200 and AMD's was about $110 (street price), so what it does is it basically closes the gap between the two prices.

"I guess you could arguably say there was little to no pressure on AMD before and there's probably no more pressure on them from a pricing standpoint."

New pricing for Intel's MPUs in 1,000-unit quantities is as follows: the 200MHz Pentium Pro with 512 kilobytes cache is $1,035, down a meager 4 percent from the $1,072 price point Intel announced last July. The 166MHz Pentium Pro with 512K cache is $627, down 6 percent from last July's $664 price.

The 200MHz Pentium Pro with 256K cache is now $525, a 7 percent reduction from the $562 price last July; while the 180MHz Pentium Pro with 256K cache is now $418, down 13 percent from $482 last summer. Intel has dropped the 150MHz Pentium Pro from its price list, indicating it will not actively market the processor in the future, although an Intel spokesman said Intel will continue to make the 150MHz Pentium Pro.

The new Pentium with MMX technology, at 2.8V in a PGA package, comes in at $539, while the top-end standard 200MHz Pentium slipped just $11, or 2 percent, to $498 from $509. The new 166MHz Pentium with MMX at 2.8V is priced at $356 for the 2.8V version, and at $539 for the 2.5V version in TCP and PPGA packaging. Intel's 150MHz Pentium with MMX at 2.5V in TCP and PPGA carries a $336 price tag while the desktop version 150MHz Pentium fell a whopping 42 percent to $161 from $278 last July. A 3.2V/2.9V version of the 150MHz Pentium has been added to Intel's portfolio, priced at $249.

At the 133MHz level, the Pentium dropped a significant 34 percent from $204 for the desktop version in PGA package to $134, while the 3.1V/2.9V mobile systems version fell 29 percent from $244 to $174. Intel's 120MHz Pentium in all versions is now $106. The desktop version was previously $134 and was reduced 21 percent; and the mobile version was previously 144 and was reduced 26 percent. "On the 120, Cyrix will have to respond," In-Stat's Mr. Griffith speculated.