CPU price history: what we have so far

Retail CPU history: not enough data to judge. Public index history: available from 2017-01 through 2026-06. Evidence cutoff: 2026-07-26. BLS WPU117839, fetched 25 July 2026 and source registry, reviewed 2026-07-25.

Daily first-party price collection is active, but the current trailing record is still too short and does not safely assign every retained identity to CPU. The public history below is monthly BLS manufacturing and consumer context. It is not a history of retail processor offers. Source registry, updated 2026-08-04.

Integrated-circuit packages, including microprocessors

The best available upstream CPU proxy contains 114 monthly observations from 2017-01 through 2026-06 with no missing month in the retained file. Its June 2026 value was 31.201. That was 3.2% above the trailing 12-month mean of 30.238, 4.4% above June 2025, and 25.0% below January 2017. The file's low was 29.538 in August 2025 and its high was 42.100 in April 2017. March through June 2026 are marked provisional. BLS WPU117839, fetched 25 July 2026.

Those percentages compare one index with its own earlier values. An index point is not a dollar and the 25.0% full-window decline does not mean every CPU became 25.0% cheaper. The series includes integrated-circuit packages beyond a named retail processor and contains no merchant offer. BLS WPU117839 series definition, fetched 25 July 2026.

Semiconductor manufacturing, the second upstream read

The broader semiconductor-manufacturing series also contains 114 monthly observations from 2017-01 through 2026-06 with no gap in the retained file. Its June 2026 value was 29.695, 0.4% below its trailing 12-month mean of 29.829, 0.6% below June 2025, and 18.4% below January 2017. Its retained low was 29.392 in August 2025 and its high was 36.700 in April 2017. March through June 2026 are provisional. BLS PCU334413334413, fetched 25 July 2026.

The integrated-circuit-package index was above its recent mean in June 2026 while the broader semiconductor index was slightly below its recent mean. That is a mild disagreement, so the history should preserve both lines instead of presenting a single CPU direction. BLS WPU117839 and BLS PCU334413334413, fetched 25 July 2026.

What this history cannot answer

The files do not distinguish a boxed CPU from a tray CPU, one model from another, a temporary promotion from a durable move, or a current offer from an out-of-stock listing. They cannot calculate a retail CPU percentile, a 30-day retail trend, or a fair price for a named processor. Source registry, reviewed 2026-07-25, and price-state methodology, published 2026-07-26.

The candidate buy-and-wait rule was withheld after its no-lookahead backtest. At three months, waiting was contradicted in 29 of 48 testable signals, or 60.4%, and buying was contradicted in 62 of 118, or 52.5%. Those error rates are why this page describes the recorded indexes but gives no buy-or-wait advice. Verdict methodology, run 2026-07-26.

When retail history becomes available

Collection is active from a source that permits retention and derived analysis. A product state still needs a real window of at least 14 days, at least 10 usable price readings, and at least 60% coverage. The current counts shown above have not passed those floors, no completion date is promised, and no earlier dates will be backfilled. Price-state methodology, published 2026-07-26.