Roadmap Intel

First, some small clarification. The prices presented here are for individual CPUs in 1,000-unit quantities, which means you can expect slightly higher prices from distributors, VARs, and retailers. Additionally, while the Itanium pricing is listed under the "Oct 29" column, these prices were actually set on August 27th, and there have been no further updates since that time. Itanium pilot systems are still expected to launch this quarter.

As you can see, Pentium 4 pricing becomes very aggressive beginning in January, with the 1.4 GHz Pentium 4 priced only about $100 above the 1.0 GHz Pentium III. We are expecting Intel to ramp the chip up to 1.7 GHz very rapidly, which implies that room will have to be made for faster chips.

Foster carries a $200 premium over the standard Pentium 4. Considering the very large premium the 2 MB Xeon carries over the Pentium III, it is possible this version of Foster has relatively few differences/improvements compared to the desktop Pentium 4. As I mentioned earlier, Intel is apparently distinguishing between "dual-processor" and "multi-processor" systems, and these Fosters are indicated as "dual-processor" versions. While we don't know exactly what this means, it would seem that some variants are limited in terms of scalability, and so these would likely be the low-end Foster chips.