MICROPROCESSORS STOLEN from a van at Heathrow Airport yesterday are Pentium 4s, the police confirmed today. As we reported yesterday, the microprocessors were worth approximately $10 million but there was initial confusion as to which CPUs were lifted.
Intel refused this morning to give further details about the heist except to say it was "cooperating" with the local authorities. Details of the speed grades of the Pentium 4 chips were also not available, but high end Intel desktop processors can cost as much as $500 each, when bought in trays of 1,000.
There is a ready market for these processors in the so-called "grey" market and although Intel will know some details about the stolen processors, they will be, in practical terms, almost untraceable. And because there is a worldwide market for "grey" electronic components, the Pentium 4 processors could turn up almost anywhere.
News source: The Inq
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