Star Tech Journal

1,,...""rAR TECH JOURNAL
March 1994
Intel Seeks Edge: Unveils Fast Chip Sooner _
The P6, due out in '95, processes three times as fast as one of its current chips. For the same price.
Intel Corp. will unleash its next-
generation microprocessor, code-
named the P6, early next year, a
faster-than-expected rollout that
hastens for consumers an already
dizzyin_g pace of technologic ad-
vancement.
silicon. It will process 300 million
instructions per second - that's
three times as many as Pentium.
It is expected to debut at about
$1,000 a chip-the same introduc-
tory price as the 486 and the
Pentium.
The P6, which Intel chief Andrew
S. Grove said would be in full
production by the end of 1995,
hits the market while personal
computer users still are learning
the difference between Intel's
popular "486" chip and the
"Pentium" chip that was rolled
out last March.
Production of the P6 "just means
the rest of the world will have to
go on sucking Intel's exhaust,"
said securities analyst John Lazlo
at Paine Webber in New York.
The P6 will contain six million
transistors - twice as many as the
Pentium - on a stamp-size pad of
Intel, the world's biggest semi-
conductor company, has gar-
nered an 85 percent share of the
market for highly profitable mi-
croprocessors used in IBM-com-
patible computers by staying way
out in front of the competition.
Although other chips conceiv-
ably could compete with the P6
in terms of processing power,
none is expected to be able to
operate the thousands of pieces
of software already written to run
on computers designed for Intel's
486 and Pentium microproces-
sors. Machines containing the P6
will run all that software.
Once the P6 is introduced, Intel
is expected to lower the price of
its Pentium dramatically. Now
found only in top-end machines,
it soon will be found in entry-
level computers. Analysts are
saying they expect Pentium-
based computers to be available
for $2K by the end of the year and
to drop below $2K next year.
RGB PATTERN GENERATOR
$249
INCLUDES HARD SHELL CARRYING CASE
ORDER FROM STAR* TECH JOURNAL, PO
Box 1065
MERCHANTVILLE, NJ
08109.
PRICE INCLUDES SHIPPING USA: CANADA Aoo
$5.
-------------------4---------~--------