Jim McMannis
Top guns back Intel's new Celerons, latest Pentium II
By Anne Knowles, PC Week Online
August 25, 1998 4:55 am ET
About a dozen PC makers rolled out workstations and low-cost desktops based on Intel Corp.'s new 450MHz Pentium II and 300MHz and 333MHz Celeron processors, which were officially announced today.
Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Gateway Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Intergraph Computer Systems, NEC Computer Systems Division and Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. were among the vendors pledging systems based on the new chips.
According to Intel, the 450MHz Pentium II, priced at $669, and the 300MHz and 333MHz Celerons, priced at $149 and $192, respectively, complete Intel's desktop processor debuts for the year. The prices are for chips in quantities of 1,000.
The new Celerons include 128KB of integrated Level 2 cache, as will all future Celerons, said Sean Maloney, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Intel, in Santa Clara, Calif.
The chips use a 66MHz bus, and currently there are no plans to upgrade to the 100MHz bus used by Intel's Pentium II processors, Maloney said.
Systems based on the Celerons will be about 10 percent slower than similarly configured systems based on Pentium IIs with the same clock speed, said Richard Dracott, Intel's director of microprocessor marketing.
But the chips are priced very differently. A 300MHz Pentium II is now about $210, compared with the $149 300MHz Celeron, while a 333MHz Pentium II is now $315 vs. $192 for the Celeron with the same clock speed.
Despite the similarity in performance and disparity in pricing, Maloney said the chips would end up in easily distinguishable systems.
"Celeron will be firmly in the basic segment, and Pentium II will be in the volume performance segment," he said.
Compaq, Dell, Gateway, HP, IBM, NEC and Toshiba all announced desktops based on the new Celeron chips.
Compaq, for example, unveiled the $1,199 Presario 5050 based on the 333MHz Celeron, with an 8GB hard drive, 96MB of synchronous dynamic RAM, a 32-speed CD-ROM drive and a 56K-bps modem.
The Houston-based company also announced Deskpro EN PCs that can be configured with either the 300MHz or the 333MHz Celeron. Pricing for the PCs will be released when the systems become available in a few weeks.
IBM, meanwhile, introduced the IBM PC 300GL, configured with either a 300MHz or 333MHz Celeron, starting at $989.
HP's Brio 7100, based on the 300MHz Celeron, is $999, while its HP Vectra VE, built with a 333MHz Celeron, is $1,099.
Most of the vendors also announced workstations and PCs based on the new 450MHz Pentium II.
Dell, for example, released its Precision WorkStation 410, with an 18GB Ultra2/Wide SCSI hard drive and 64MB of RAM for $2,918. The Round Rock, Texas, company also announced it would incorporate the 450MHz Pentium II in its Dimension XPS R Series in systems starting at $2,049.
Gateway, in North Sioux City, S.D., introduced 450MHz Pentium II systems in its G-Series home PCs, E-Series managed desktops, GP-Series small-business desktops and Destination Digital Media Computer. The E-Series desktop starts at $2,499, while the GP-Series system starts at $2,599.
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