Intel cuts prices on Pentium III, intros new Xeons

Intel Corporation took the savings stick to its entire microprocessor line, dropping prices across the board as it introduces new high-end Xeon processors for workstations and servers. The biggest savings come to the Pentium III line: the 550 MHz Pentium III processor, for example, dropped from $658 to $487, which the 450 MHz version dropped from $230 to $187. Only high-end chips, such as the new 600 MHz Pentium III and 550 MHz Xeon did not drop in price.

Meanwhile, the microprocessor giant also introduced two new versions of the 550 MHz Pentium III Xeon processor, which feature 1 MB and 2 MB of Level 1 (L1) cache, respectively. The preliminary version of this chip features 512K of cache, like the Pentium II and III lines. The high-end Xeons are expensive, however: The 1 MB version is almost $2000 per chip, while the 2 MB version will set customers back $3700