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Follow UsNEW YORK: Intel Corp., the world's largest maker of microchips, on Monday
said it had begun selling a Pentium 4 processor that runs at two gigahertz, or
two billion cycles per second, marking the doubling of the speed of computer
chips in only a year and a half.
The new processor moves Intel, which was beaten to the one-gigahertz
milestone last year by rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc., ahead in the closely
watched battle for faster computer chip speeds. The clock speed of a chip is one
factor in the overall power of a computer.
The announcement, on the heels of a technical conference hosted by Intel,
comes in the context of slumping business for makers of personal computers,
which have slashed prices and offered extra features in order to induce sales.
Consumers have slowed the pace of computer purchases, in part because of a lack
of applications for even more powerful PCs.
Still, computer makers rushed to incorporate the two-gigahertz chip in their
product lines. On the heels of Intel's announcement Dell Computer Corp., said it
would use the chip in an array of products.
The Pentium 4 chip will be sold for $562 each in 1,000 unit quantities, San
Jose, California-based Intel said. A chip that runs at 1.9 gigahertz will be
sold for $375. In March of 2000, Advanced Micro and Intel reached a milestone in
the development of computer technology by building microchips that run at a
billion cycles per second, or one gigahertz.