As previously reported, both Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices are introducing faster chips and dropping prices on existing processors in the next few months. Tony Smith of the Register reports that Advanced Micro Devices will push its schedule up to release Thunderbird Athlons in 1.4GHz and 1.5GHz versions in the next months and similar reports are coming from EBNews' Jack Robertson.

Intel's 1.7GHz Pentium 4 is due in weeks costing $776, which will fall to $669 by the end of May. The Register says that AMD's 1.5GHz Thunderbird Athlon will be out in a few months, followed by 1.53GHz, 1.6GHz and 1.67GHz chips based on the Palomino core that will support an enhanced branch-prediction unit and hardware-prefetching.

For more information, read ebnews.com, theinquirer.net, theregister.co.uk and theregister.co.uk.