Fastest for Intel. Sorry never heard of SUN 300's mhz's.Intel is a tested product,will you take seriously the notion of 400mhz's from Timbakto. Intel has already delivered 100,000 CPU's how many so far SUN has delivered will be interesting to discover another AMD.
Following story may be interesting:
Wednesday May 7 4:58 PM EDT
Intel Unveils New Pentium Processors
By Therese Poletti
NEW YORK (Reuter) - Intel Corp. Wednesday launched its much-anticipated line of Pentium II
computer chips that break its microprocessor speed record and pack more advanced multimedia
capabilities, but a possible flaw took some zip out of the day.
The world's largest semiconductor maker said it has already shipped 100,000 of the chips to its
computer manufacturing partners, and more than 100 computer makers announced shipments of
PCs designed around the new microprocessors.
Intel, which suffered financial and public relations headaches about two years ago from a glitch that
turned up in its original Pentium processor, said it continued to look into the report earlier this week
of a flaw in the Pentium II, as well as its older Pentium Pro chip.
The three new Pentium II microprocessors, the heart of a personal computer, run at speeds ranging
from 233 megahertz to 300 megahertz, the fastest yet for Intel. The old Intel speed record was
held by the Pentium with MMX multimedia technology and a Pentium Pro processor, both running
at 200 megahertz.
"With this product, we are literally changing the shape of computing," said Paul Otellini, an Intel
executive vice president. "It allows us to drive costs down and allows us to scale up over the life
cycle of this product."
Otellini said initially the Pentium II chips will be used in PCs and workstations aimed at corporate
users because of the high level of computing power, which includes the ability to turn raw data into
three-dimensional models. Business software can combine video, graphics and audio.
Intel and some PC makers said they expect consumer systems based on the Pentium II to be
launched in the fall.
But Gateway 2000 Inc., one of the top mail-order marketers of PCs, said it started selling PCs at
midnight to consumers, at prices beginning at $2,499 for a 233-megahertz model with 32
megabytes of memory and a 3.2-gigabyte hard disk drive. It has sold more than 1,200 PCs with
Pentium II processors.
"We are taking a very bullish stance on the Pentium II," said Dave Berger, Gateway's director of
product marketing.
The North Sioux City, S.D., company said it hired 50 students to dress up in bull costumes and
wander around Wall Street's canyons Wednesday, passing out computer chip-shaped chocolate
candies, to celebrate the Pentium II.
Other computer makers who said they are shipping systems using the Pentium II include Acer
America, AST Research Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Digital Equipment
Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., International Business Machines Corp., Micron Electronics Inc., and
the NEC Computer Systems Division of Packard Bell NEC Inc.
"It's an integral part of both of our product lines," said Rodney Adkins, a vice president at IBM's
PC Company. IBM introduced desktop PCs and workstations based on the Pentium II. Consumer
models are expected to come later this year.
Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., said it continued to look into reports earlier this week that the
Pentium II and Pentium Pro chips could contain a bug that causes the chips to make computational
errors in some rare cases.
The problem was disclosed Monday by Robert Collins, a Silicon Valley engineer with a Web site
called Intel Secrets.
Otellini said Intel was testing the Pentium Pro and Pentium II to find the problem. He said Intel may
have an announcement later this week, adding it was too early to tell how serious the reported flaw
may be.
In late 1994, a flaw was found in the Pentium processor, which led to a $475 million charge against
earnings as Intel had to recall chips and ship out replacements.
Asked if the possible flaw could be as serious, Otellini said it was "premature to hazard a guess."
But he added that Intel learned its lesson in 1994. The company now works with the industry and
publishes findings of "errata" on its chips on the Web.
One industry analyst, who has been running tests in a his laboratory, said he still cannot get the
Pentium Pro nor the Pentium II to make an error in calculation.
"The flaw is so rare that you can't trigger it with a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet," said Richard
Doherty, director of Envisioneering, a newsletter and technology test lab based in Seaford, N.Y.
"We are still looking for it," Doherty said. "It's somewhere between searching for Elvis and being a
potential business problem."
Reuters/Variety
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