The realm of CPUs is obviously topsey turvey (a Brit way of saying 'prone to fluctuations'). And now, with the realization that AMD's Athlon is a brawny high-end part, Intel seems to be adjusting their plans somewhat. You'd think that they'd be 'quaking' in their boots, right? One hand might well be doing just that (the engineering side?) but the other hand (the one that plots Intel's future road maps) most likely isn't. It seems as though there's also been another Athlon 'realization'.

The vibe we've been getting from motherboard manufacturers is that Athlon won't be hitting 'mainstream' for some time to come. Until the switch to .18 micron is made, the Athlon will remain an extremely expensive piece of kit to produce and therefor will be available in smaller quantities (especially at the 600MHz level). So what's the big 'I' got planned then? What's their response to all of the positive press the Athlon has been receiving?

Lately the news has contained hints and bits of what is to come…Intel's 'sudden' increased interest in both Internet and mobile computing, for example. But on the concrete side, apart from the introduction of a 733MHz Coppermine by Q2 of next year, their latest plans focus upon price cuts over the next few months and might seem to be more conservative than usual. We've followed up with several meetings with sources close to Intel (you knew that was coming) and it seems as though some CPU, Mobile CPU, chipset and Graphics plans have been changed from our previous speculation. As you know 'plans' and 'roadmaps' change as frequently as the weather in Britain but we'll do our best to sum up what we think we know. A good place to start is with the significant changes….