Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) plan to cut prices of high-end products as they introduce new processors during the next few weeks to more significantly stimulate demand.

Downstream vendors have hoped both companies' price cuts would be able to boost buying sentiment. As the industry enters the traditional slow season in the second quarter, sales of processors have been relatively weak since the first week of April, local processor distributors said.

Intel is set to revise the price of its 400/533MHz FSB (front-side bus)-supporting 3GHz Pentium 4 processor down to US$401 when it introduces its 800MHz FSB-version product. Later next month, when it launches 800MHz FSB 2.8 and 2.6GHz processors, Intel will also lower prices of the respective 533MHz versions to US$262 and US$193.

AMD is planning to cut prices on its Athlon XP processors, ranging from the Athlon XP 2000+ to Athlon XP 3000+, at the same time it introduces its new 64-bit K8-core Opteron processors on April 22, according to local distributors. The greatest price cut is expected to be seen in the Athlon XP 3000+, exceeding 30%.

Despite the price cut schedule, some local channel vendors already lowered processor prices earlier this week, hoping to boost demand.

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