The air of inevitability

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM
LA INTELLA has refused to rule out introducing a cut-down version of the Pentium 4 at any time in the future. Indeed, should the "price differentiation" provided by 100MHz increments in the P4 not be enough to woo the cost-conscious buyer then an incarnation of the P4 under the Celeron label would be a distinct possibility.

Intel Architecture Group Guru Anand Chandrasekher said he wouldn’t rule out a P4 figuring in the "Celeron-branded family of products."

He refused to be drawn further. He did say we could expect to see integrated chipsets for the P4 that would satisfy "cost-conscious corporate types" [Skinflints? Ed.] early next year. He also claimed the 845 chipset supporting DDR that he said would be available in Q1 next year would see the cost benefits of SDRAM accruing to DDR.

Rambo configurations, he said, would cheapen but, for the meantime, the big boys such as Dell would continue to see, in Anand Chandrashikara talk, "a smaller price differential between Dimms and Rimms."

Smaller players, he suggested, would still have to pay through the nose. Our words. Not his.