Intel Investors - Re: "300 MHz Pentium II"
Perhaps 300 MHz Pemtium II's won't be fast enough. PC Week is discussing a 333 MHz Pentium II by this coming January.
Also, the new 440LX chip set is looking real - AGP and SDRAM may be arriving in the early fall for the Pentium II.
Check out the following PC Week article.
Paul
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copyright (c) PC Week Magazine/Ziff Davis Publications
www8.zdnet.com
June 16, 1997 10:00 AM ET
PC manufacturers tap into
Pentium II chip set as Intel preps
MMX, 'classic' Pentium price
cuts
By Lisa DiCarlo
Armed with forthcoming Intel Corp.
technology and aggressive CPU pricing
schedules, many PC makers this week will
give select PC Expo attendees a
behind-the-scenes look at products due this
summer and fall.
In August, Intel will drop prices of its Pentium Processor
with MMX Technology by as much as 50 percent and
some "classic" Pentium processors below $100,
sources said.
The Santa Clara, Calif., company also will release the
440LX chip set, which supports AGP (Accelerated
Graphics Port), SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM),
OnNow and the fast UltraDMA hard drive protocol.
The result will be a refresh of Compaq Computer
Corp.'s Deskpro line, new Vectra XU workstations from
Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Computer Corp.'s first
workstation, new Bravo PCs from AST Research Inc.
and a new 300PL desktop model from IBM Personal
Computer Co., according to sources.
All of the systems will use the 440LX, the first chip set
for Pentium II, which Intel released in early May. The
systems will include add-ins to exploit the chip set's
capability.
For example, PC makers will use AGP-enabled
graphics processors from Intel, Cirrus Logic Inc. and
Trident Corp., as well as UltraDMA hard drives from
Quantum Corp., Western Digital Corp., IBM and Maxtor
Corp., sources said.
SDRAM also will boost system performance. With
SDRAM, for each bit of data passing through the PCI
bus, a bit of memory is allocated--a "no latency"
approach that should improve performance by as much
as 20 percent, sources said.
As OEMs ready more powerful MMX systems for early
fall, Intel will move classic Pentiums into the bargain bin
by pricing the 133MHz and 150MHz CPUs well below
$100, sources said. In November, Intel will price the
166MHz Pentium below $100.
Intel officials declined to comment on specific pricing
moves, but they said the company has improved
manufacturing efficiency for MMX processors, and as a
result classic Pentiums will be moved out a little sooner
than expected.
Despite deep cuts on Pentium and Pentium with MMX
processors, Pentium Pro prices will not be cut, sources
said. Prices on the new Pentium II will be cut only about
10 percent.
However, when Intel and OEMs release 333MHz
Pentium II processors and systems in January, prices
for 233MHz and 266MHz Pentium II systems will fall to
about $1,500 and $2,000, respectively, sources said. |
