Volgens ZDNet overweegt Intel de release van een 1,2GHz Pentium III in de tweede helft van dit jaar. Intel voelt zich tot deze stap genoodzaakt omdat verwacht wordt dat AMD na de introductie van de Thunderbird in mei vrij snel de 1GHz barrière zal doorbreken:
The motivation to raise performance comes, in part, because of the available "headroom" on the chip. But analysts said it will also come out of necessity, due to competition with AMD and demand from its PC-maker customers.Headroom is, essentially, the amount of additional clock speed a version of a processor can be enhanced with after its introduction, due to manufacturing refinements. Intel's current-generation Pentium III chip, according to convention, should have an additional 200MHz left in it.
[...] "I don't think that they've decided yet where to go. A lot of it depends on what they see out of the factory in terms of yields," said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Mercury Research. "Market demand is another factor." But the main factor may be the competitive landscape.
Thanks =Alpha=Psycho voor de tip.