According to insiders Intel has announced plans to push the production of its newest chips forward by, about, a quarter. What this means is that the 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 will become available in Q3, 2002 and the P4 running at 3 Ghz will be unleashed by the end of the year.
If such plans do move ahead AMD, Intel's main rival, will be confronted with two major problems. The first one will be the extension of Intel's clock-speed lead which, by becoming greater than its rivals by 1Ghz will, effectively, render AMD's MHz Myth arguments useless. The second and possibly much more alarming problem, for AMD, will be that the release of the new chips will, almost certainly, see a reduction in previous P4 prices, bringing AMD-Intel prices to almost the same level for similarly clocked processors.
According to Hector Ruiz, AMD's President and Chief Executive, the current environment has been the most competitive he has seen in his career. Unless AMD can produce a surprise of their own in order to counter, this latest, Intel move it is possible that AMD may not survive this environment.
