Chipmaker Intel has cut the price of its microprocessors including its second-fastest Pentium 4.
The move maintains the company's strategy of lowering product prices to make way for new processors.
Earlier this week Intel cut the price on its Pentium 4 2.2 gigahertz chip 25 per cent to US$423 each from US$562. It also cut Pentium 4 chips running at 1.9 GHz and 2.0 GHz by 7 per cent and 23 per cent respectively.
The 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 price cut follows Intel's introduction earlier this month of its 2.4 GHz chip. Intel typically launches new chips at about US$560 then drops the price of the previously fastest chip several weeks later.
Intel is expected to announce a new, faster version of the Pentium 4 early next month.
Meanwhile, Intel has launched an advertising campaign in Asia aimed at the consumer and business market. The campaign, worth an estimated US$75 million globally, features blue aliens using Intel-powered devices and includes print, television and online advertising. The advertisements will run in Hong Kong cinemas as well as outdoor video walls.
In one advertisement a lounging alien floats through outer space using a notebook PC accompanied by Frank Sinatra's version of Fly Me to the Moon.