News from Intel. Keep in mind the Pentium III includes the Katmai instruction set which enhances the floating point operations for audio, video, 3D, etc. It appears that Intel, who is a major force in "stearing" the market and moving the bar ever higher, is pushing towards products that support and enhance applications where floating-point is required...good news for LGPT since Intel is basically helping create this market for the main-stream.
Intel touts Pentium III as an Internet booster
By Will Wade
Semiconductor Business News
(02/17/99, 4:10 p.m. EDT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Although the chip won't be formally launched until Feb.26, Intel Corp. previewed its Pentium III processor here today (2/17) at an event stressing the role of the Internet in driving the growth of the computing industry.
"The Internet is the killer application of the PC business," said Craig Barrett, Intel's president and CEO. "Its growth is critical for our core business of microprocessors."
The Pentium III will have clock speeds of 450 MHz, 500 MHz and 550
MHz. The "Xeon" version for the server and workstation market will be
launched in March, with the same chip speeds.
Several hundred of Intel's hardware, software and web site partners were on hand at the San Jose preview to demonstrate the capabilities of the chip, and its ability to enhance graphics, especially when delivered to the end user through the Internet. Barrett stressed that the improved web performance would make both entertainment and e-commerce more ubiquitous activities for the average consumer. "We're looking for this to be a major change in the way we do business," he said.
Pushing e-commerce is important to Intel, which sees the growth of the overall PC business as the only way to grow its own business. Barrett repeated his firm's long-standing projection of a billion connected PCs by the year 2005, but added a new factor: a forecasted $1 trillion in e-commerce transactions within the United States by 2002.
"The Pentium III processor is designed to power a new Internet experience filled with rich audio, video, animations and 3D that make information come alive," said Mike Aymar, vice president and director of Intel's platform launch operation. Many of the demonstrations at the product showcase echoed this point, showing off animated images available on the Internet, even with standard 56 Kb/s analog modems.
"This is going to be a better experience for the end user," Barrett said. "It's exciting to look forward to what we can expect in the future." |
