According to Semiconductor Business News, Intel Corp. is hedging its bets by extending the life of its Pentium III line of processors in case Pentium 4 acceptance fails to meet projections. Sources reported by SBN say Intel will shortly announce a 1.7-GHz P4, but is also preparing a new 1.13-GHz PIII using a 0.13-micron process technology. Both will ship, sources say, in Q2.
The story is that the PIII will not be phased out until problems with the P4 family are fixed. One of the main problems, according to analysts, is that the P4 was designed to support Rambus Inc.'s Direct Rambus memory interface only.
In related news, Intel Corp.'s forthcoming 64-bit server chips code-named McKinley and Madison will take on some form of the Itanium name when introduced. The Itanium name has been devalued somewhat due to the two-year launch delay.
Source: Toms Hardware
