News

Intel Announces 15 New Pentium III Processors; Dell, HP Release New Hardware

• By Scott Bekker
• 10/25/1999

Intel Corp. announced the release of fifteen new Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon processors, including Intel's fastest processor to date, the 733 MHz Pentium III. All of the Intel processors released today were built with Intel's 0.18-micron process technology. The new Pentium III processors feature an Advanced Transfer Cache that delivers a performance boost of up to 25 percent when compared to earlier Pentium III processors running at the same clock speed.

The new processors were released in speeds of 733, 700, 667, 650, 600, 550, 533, and 500 MHz for desktop systems, and in speeds of 733, 667, and 600 MHz for workstation systems. The desktop processors are supported by a variety of chipsets, including the Intel 810E Chipset, Intel 440BX Chipset and Intel 440ZX Chipset. The desktop processors will also be supported by the Intel 820 Chipset when it is released later this year. The 550 and 500 MHz processors are also available in a flip-chip (FC-PGA) package, which will enable PC manufacturers to design and develop smaller, sleeker, and higher-performance PCs with improved ease of use. Workstations based on today's Intel processor releases and the Intel 840 Chipset will offer enhanced systems features and capabilities, including the 133 MHz system bus, 64-bit PCI support, graphics support for AGP 2x/4x, and dual Direct RDRAM memory channels with up to 2GB support.

Intel also announced the release of several new Mobile Pentium III processors, designed especially for mobile PCs. Mobile Pentium III processors are now available in 500, 450, and 400 MHz speeds. The Mobile Pentium III processor line has also been manufactured in smaller sizes, with the smallest mobile Pentium III processor package being approximately the size of a postage stamp. Additionally, Intel unveiled the latest versions of its Pentium III Xeon processor family with new processors for two-way servers, in speeds of 733, 667 and 600 MHz.

On the heels of Intel's announcement, Dell Computer Corp. today announced the expansion of its workgroup server line with the introduction of the Dell PowerEdge 2400 Server. The PowerEdge 2400 Server, offering the latest Intel Pentium III processor technology, expands the price/performance and availability boundaries of workgroup servers from Dell by offering the latest Intel Pentium III processor technology with 133 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB), redundant hot-swap power supplies and embedded RAID technologies.

Dell also announced that it will incorporate Intel's new Pentium III 700 MHz processors into its PowerEdge 2300 and 2400 workgroup and departmental servers. The PowerEdge 2400 Server is available today and ships with Dell OpenManage Resolution Assistant, software that provides Internet-enabled product support from Dell.

The PowerEdge 2400 Server is the first Dell workgroup server to feature hot swap/redundant power supplies. It also features the latest Intel Pentium III 667 MHz processor and supports up to 144 GB of internal storage. The PowerEdge 2400 also supports enhanced RAID capability such as embedded single channel PERC 2/Si. The PowerEdge 2400 is tested and certified to run Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Novell NetWare 4.2 and NetWare 5, and is slated to support Red Hat Linux 6.1. It is also tested and certified for the Microsoft Small Business Server suite of applications.

In addition to Dell's new offering, Hewlett-Packard Company announced that two of their notebook PCs, the HP OmniBook 4150 and the HP OmniBook 900, will incorporate Intel's new mobile Pentium III processors. In addition to the new mobile Pentium III processors, the notebook lines will feature the ATI RAGE Mobility graphics accelerator as well as significantly improved battery life.