Hachman's spin on the 1.13 release
Intel To Debut 1.13-GHz Pentium III On July 31
(06/29/00, 4:47 p.m. ET) By Mark Hachman, TechWeb News
Just when it seemed to be over, the megahertz race is on again.
Intel (stock: INTC) will ship a 1.13-Ghz Pentium III Coppermine chip on July 31, a representative of the chip maker said on Thursday.
But the chip will only be released in "limited volume production," leaving some observers to question whether the trail of Intel's "paper launches" will resume.
According to a spokesman for the Santa Clara, Calif., chip firm, the announcement was made to allow to Intel to seize the reins of the industry's direction.
"Intel's a technology leader, and we wanted to set the date in stone" for the company's OEMs and partners, he said.
The part will be released in limited volume and ramp into full production during the course of the second half of 2000, he said.
"The Coppermine core is wonderful, and we can provide additional speeds," the spokesman said.
Intel, whose confidential chip road maps are provided to OEMs and customers, rarely provides specific information on upcoming chip launches to reporters or financial analysts.
In the past months, some of those confidential road maps that have been obtained by TechWeb have been vague on the subject of future Pentium processors, and analysts had privately questioned whether the chip maker would be able to eke out any more clock-speed iterations on the part.
Other pricing road maps published online by industry press in May, for example, also failed to mention any Pentium III parts higher than 1 GHz.
One analyst found the Intel spokesman's phrase "technology leader" questionable, saying that Intel has so far been out-manufactured by rival Advanced Micro Devices (stock: AMD) in high-speed PC microprocessors. Representatives from AMD were unavailable for comment.
The phrase "paper launch," which the Intel spokesman said was coined by the press, refers to the announcement of a product without the manufacturing volume available to support demand.
The industry has been plagued by shortages of components, Intel microprocessors among them. However, both OEMs and analysts have said the supply of Intel microprocessors has improved at least to top-tier customers.
Willamette, now called the Pentium 4, is set to debut in September or October and succeed the Pentium III. The part should debut at speeds of about 1.4 GHz; 1.2- and 1.3-GHz versions are expected as well, which would provide Intel and its customers a steady, smooth improvement in clock speed
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