Intel has slashed prices across the board as it prepares to get behind new processor lines due this autumn.

The Itanium server line has seen cuts of over 30 per cent, while prices for Intel's fastest business desktop Pentium 4 processors have fallen by as much as 34.5 per cent and mobile Pentium 4 chips by up to a fifth.

But while Intel's fastest business desktop 3.6GHz 560 has dropped to $417 when sold in units of a thousand, its fastest desktop chip, the P4 Extreme Edition for gamers, remains unchanged at $999, indicating that some sections of the market are still willing to pay for early adoption.

Intel's Celeron D range of low-cost desktop processors has also seen price cuts, albeit of a more modest six per cent to 12 per cent. The chip maker is believed to be clearing the shelves for new launches.

"Intel does go through these price readjustments once a quarter or so," said Andy Buss, senior analyst at Canalys.

"They are getting processors priced for new product introductions, with Intel's Madison chip coming out this quarter and newer dual processor chips also coming online. This kind of price change means Intel won't be left with stock on its hands."

Madison is the long-awaited Itanium 2 high-end server processor. The company's combined 32/64-bit chips have also been cut in price by more than a third.

"Intel's strategy is to align the prices of individual products to meet the needs of each market segment," said a company spokesman in a statement.

"This is another step towards Intel's goal to deliver Itanium 2-based systems with up to twice the performance as Intel Xeon processor-based systems at the same system cost in 2007."

Full details on Intel's price changes can be found here.