British hacks urge Intel to raise chip prices

AT A PRESS CONFERENCE earlier today, Alan Priestley, who heads up server systems for Intel Europe, said that by 2007 the prices for Xeons and for Itaniums would be the same.

This threw the entire assembly of not-yet-extinguished die hard hacks into a veritable frenzy of dismay.

Some of them were still reeling from the bacon and egg sandwiches which covered their ties in an Intel massive array of yolk, in any case.

Yes, we all shook our heads wondering where it would end.

Manek Dubash, Clive Akass, Martin Banks, Mary Branscombe, former INQ columnist Tony "Smitty" Smith and Mike "Mad as a Hatter" Magee all wondered just what Intel thought it was playing at.

If, for example, an OEM or a systems integrator was able to charge a fortune for an Itanium system, much more than for a Xeon server, why the heck not, they exclaimed, severally.

Hey, I mean. This is free enterprise and capitalism, right?

Mr Priestley looked a bit bewildered by this, but then explained that if OEMs wanted to charge more for an Itanium, which as we reported earlier occupies the same sector as "big tin", then they could.

There was a delta between the components in an Itanium server system and those in a Xeon server system, he explained. Such as, er, microprocessor, power supply/fans, and chipsets.

But if we wanted to know exactly what the delta was, we'd have to ask an OEM. But Intel is an OEM, so we asked Alan. But as in a previous question asking how long the Xeon would last as a processor, we regret to report that he has no visibility on this question.

Quite right too. Putting your head above the parapet in front of British journalists is not a wise thing to do. Similarly, he pointed out that Intel had never said it would obliterate the RISC competition. That is a word he would not use, he averred.

Banskie said perhaps a more suitable set of words would be to allow the RISC chips to "wither on the vine". But we couldn't manage to put those words in his mouth either. Shucks. What is British journalism coming to? µ