Aiming at high-end desktop systems, the company demonstrated Willamette, a next-generation Pentium III processor running at speeds up to 1 GHz, for use in high-end desktops with Direct Rambus memory, slated to ship at in the second half of the year. Albert Yu, general manager of Intel's processor group, said Intel expects to ship hundreds of thousands of 1-GHz Willamette microprocessors by the end of this year. The new microarchitecture will enable higher clock speeds and better floating-point operation for desktop PCs, Intel said.

Analysts say that the better floating-point operations on Willamette represent a historical shift for Intel. "Intel has always been criticized for mediocre floating-point performance," said Jon Peddie, president of graphics watcher Jon Peddie Associates (Tiburon, Calif.). "This helps them address that." Better floating-point speed is expected to help users do more complex modeling. It could also accelerate encryption for e-commerce.

During the forum's keynote speech, which drew about 3,000 attendees from 65 countries, Intel executives demonstrated a version of the Willamette microprocessor running at speeds of 1.5 GHz.

Intel also gave a first peak at its integrated processor, Timna, which will include a graphics core, P6 processor core, Level 2 cache and memory controller. Pat Gelsinger, general manger of Intel's desktop group, said Timna will ship in the second half of this year in a version using SDRAM. In 2001 Intel will produce a version of Timna using Direct Rambus memory.

Gelsinger also announced a new working group to create a serial version of the ATA interface. The new interface will further shut out the 1394 architecture from use as an internal PC interface for disk drives and other peripherals. Gelsinger said the serial ATA interface will cost less, be more scalable and more compatible with the PC architecture than 1394.

However, Intel will work with Sony on a range of issues, Gelsinger said, including wireless 1394 and a home-networking technology.