Looking to upstage Intel Corp with its DX4 and Pentium announcements, IBM Corp has cut prices on the PowerPC 601 chips by nearly 15%. The 80MHz version is now $417, the 66MHz one is $298 and the 50MHz is $232 – but that’s when you order 25,000 of the things, something only Apple Computer Inc is likely to do at this stage. IBM says it has shipped more that 250,000 601s in the first four months – but again, that is only about enough to meet Apple’s requirement; IBM is the sole source, although IBM-made parts are also available from Motorola Inc.
