All -
Intel releasing new low-cost chip
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM
July 21, 1998, 12:35 p.m. PT
just in Intel has once again accelerated its road map for low-end Celeron processors, moving up the release of faster versions with integrated high-speed memory from next quarter to this one and adding a 366-MHz version of the chip for early 1999.
The new 300-MHz and 333-MHz chips will follow better-than-expected progress in implementing the company's most advanced 0.25-micron manufacturing process, according to an Intel spokesman. Generally, improved production yields permit Intel to come out with faster chips earlier than expected.
Questions have arisen, however, about how Intel will market the improved Celeron, which will now pack 128K (kilobytes) of high-speed cache memory, making the chip competitive with higher-end Pentium II processors. Current Celeron chips have no cache memory, which negatively impacts performance.
Plans for the advance release coincide with market gains made by archrival Advanced Micro Devices in the low end of the consumer segment. AMD saw its processor sales increase from 1.6 million to 2.7 million from the first quarter to the third quarter.
A PC Data study touted by AMD states that the Sunnyvale, California, chipmaker captured 34.8 percent of the retail PC market in June and over 50 percent of the sub-$1,000 retail market.
|
