SANTA CLARA, Calif.--In a move keep its Pentium III ahead of rival Athlon processors, Intel Corp. today announced a 1.13-GHz version of its MPU. The 1.13-GHz Pentium III is available now in limited quantities, selling for $990 each in 1,000-piece lots, said Intel.
The Santa Clara company is also adding a higher performing model to its aging Pentium III line to keep up the pace with Athlon processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which is expected to push the speed of its MPU to 1.5 GHz next year. Intel has decided to shrink the Pentium III die with the company's next-generation 0.13-micron process technology with copper interconnect, according to sources (see July 24 story).
But now, Intel has bumped up the performance of its current 0.18-micron Pentium III to 1.13-GHz from a previous top-speed of 1 GHz. Intel is still struggling to ramp up volume shipments of its 1-GHz Pentium III, according to analyst Bert McComas, the head of InQuest Research Inc. in Gilbert, Ariz. He said Intel rushed out premature GHz Pentium III announcements to fend off archrival AMD, which is shipping larger quantities of its 1-GHz Athlon processors.
The new faster Pentium III is expected to be shipped initially to a few select PC manufacturers, including Intel's strong supporter Dell Computer Corp. of Austin, Tex.
Intel said the Pentium III gives it the rights to claim the fastest PC processor available today. "With the Pentium III processor at 1.13 GHz, PC enthusiasts will be able to get the most out of the Web and the high performance applications they use today," said Bill Siu, vice president in the Intel Architecture Group and general manager of the company's Desktop Platforms Group.
Using BAPCo's SYSmark 2000 benchmark, running under Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 2000, the 1.13-GHz Pentium III delivers a system-level performance score of 208 compared to a score of 197 on the Pentium III processor at 1 GHz, according to Intel.
--Additional reporting by Jack Robertson of EBN, a sister publication of SBN.
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