To: IceShark who wrote (52061 ) 10/27/2000 6:35:16 AM From: DJBEINO Respond to of 53903 Intel CEO says Pentium 4 ready in about a month TAIPEI, Oct 27 (Reuters) - The chief executive officer of microchip titan Intel Corp (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) said on Friday the U.S. company's long-awaited Pentium 4 microprocessor would be launched in about one month, just ahead of its original year-end target. ``We'll price the Pentium 4 processor precisely as necessary to get it in the volume desktop marketplace,'' Intel CEO Craig Barrett told reporters in Taipei. ``The product will be introduced in about a month and we are going to ramp it very rapidly next year,'' he added. Intel has not publicly given a specific date for its Pentium 4 launch, only saying that its target is the second half of the year. The company said it had notified clients of the date, however. Online technology news website CNET networks has reported that personal computer makers had complained that an earlier October 30 launch date for the Pentium 4 had been delayed to November 20 or later, but Intel declined to comment on the report. The Pentium 4 will help Intel regain bragging rights for the world's fastest microprocessor after Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD - news) began shipping its 1.2 gigahertz Athlon chip this month. The Pentium 4 will run at up to 1.5 gigahertz. Barrett also repeated earlier comments that pairing its now-abandoned Timna processor with fast but pricey memory chips using technology from Rambus (NasdaqNM:RMBS - news) was a mistake. ``When we were ready with Timna, RDRAM (Rambus dynamic random access memory) was not available at the price points that would make the Timna microprocessor successful,'' he said. The Timna, which was scrapped in September, had been aimed at low-cost computer systems. ``We still are believers in RDRAM for high-performance desktop applications,'' Barrett said. ``In fact the Pentium 4 product introduction is a RDRAM microprocessor.'' He declined to say if Intel would offer a version of the Pentium 4 that would run on less costly double data rate DRAM, which is slower than RDRAM but twice as fast as the more common PC133 DRAM chips. On Thursday, Intel shares closed up US$3-6/16 at Us$44-11/16.biz.yahoo.com