Thanks nexty for mailing us this one. WHILE AMD is expected to introduce its 2800+ and 2700+ Athlon XP chips this week, rumours are growing that Intel might attempt to steal its thunder and rush its 3.06GHz Hypethreading Pentium 4 out of the door earlier.
We can't substantiate those rumours at press time. But one reader said that he saw a 3.06GHz P4 for sale late Friday and rang the firm. He said that Web site reported it would have chips for sale on Monday, and he went ahead and bought one.
An Australian web site is apparently selling a 3GHz (3.06) Pentium 4, as you can see here, for AUS$1466 (~US$796) That, however, would mean that Intel has also brought forward the launch of chipsets that will support hyperthreading.
And if the rumour is true, it would mean price cuts would also be the order of the day, earlier than the channel expected.
The chipsets supporting hypethreading have had to be especially designed to take account of the technology, which Intel could actually have implemented in its desktop CPUs much earlier in the year, if it hadn't deliberately scrambled the "crystal tubes" that supported it, inside. The correct term is "fused the transistors", but as the CPU is the "brain of a computer", it could be described by the mischievous as an X86 lobotomy.
Will Intel dare to "paper launch" the 3.06GHz Pentium 4?
News source: The Inquirer
