Kingston chips in to Office 97 deal

Microsoft promotional bundle offers special prices on Kingston memory

The UK arms of Microsoft and Kingston have joined forces to offer special prices on memory to purchasers of Office 97.

Promotional copies of Office 97 will have a coupon in the box offering users 32Mb of memory for #133. The aim is to help Kingston sell more memory and to allow Microsoft users to run the Office suite at optimum speeds.

The promotion has already been running in the US.

John Holland, vice president of Kingston Technology Europe, said over two-thirds of the installed PC base in Europe still used 486 or earlier chips, which mostly use 8Mb of Ram or less.

?The extra 32Mb will boost the performance of newer PCs and be a cost-effective upgrade to older systems,? he said. ?It will pave the way for advanced capabilities in the future.?

Meanwhile US reports have speculated that AMD will release three flavours of its Pentium II killer on 2 April. The chips are expected to be 166MHz, 200MHz and 233MHz and prices will be $210, $315 and $450 when bought in quantities of 1,000. AMD refused to comment on the pricing.

These prices are likely to appeal to hardware vendors, including Compaq and Mitsubishi. IBM was also reported to be looking at the processor for its machines, according to internal sources.

The move will increase the pressure on Intel, which is due to release its 300MHz Pentium II in May. The high clock speed is likely to appeal to consumers and users, undermining the chip giant?s rivals. An Intel representative refused to discuss the pricing or which customers would be using the latest chip.