Intel will continue its assault on rival AMD by announcing even faster P4 processors and a new chipset.
Intel plans to turn up the wick on desktop PC performance Monday.
The chipmaker will announce three new Pentium 4 chips for desktop PCs, along with a new version of its 850 chipset. The new chipset offers a faster 533MHz bus and supports a speedier version of Rambus memory, 1066MHz RDRAM, sources said.
Intel's new flagship Pentium 4 will be a 2.53GHz chip. The other new Pentium 4's will run at 2.26GHz and 2.4GHz. All work with the faster bus.
The added clock speed, faster bus and new RDRAM could translate into an overall performance boost of roughly 10 percent to 15 percent over current high-end desktop PCs, some sources have said. The bus provides a data pathway between the processor and memory. Maintaining a proper ratio between the bus speed and the clock speed of the processor is an important element for preserving performance as processors get quicker.
Boosting the bus will make room for faster Pentium 4's. But it also helps Intel up the ante in its desktop performance race with rival Advanced Micro Devices. AMD and Intel have been trading blows on the desktop since the introduction of the Athlon in late 1999. The latest move may give Intel the upper hand for a while.
However, AMD has several tricks up its sleeve, including Thoroughbred, a new processor that will bring higher clock speeds later in the year. In early 2003, PC makers will also begin shipping systems based on ClawHammer, a new chip that AMD says will begin at 2GHz speeds.
Currently, AMD's fastest desktop chip is the 1.73GHz Athlon XP 2100+. Despite the difference in clock speed, the Athlon chip offers competitive performance to the 2.4GHz Pentium 4, reviewers have said.
While Intel may pull away with the 2.53GHz and its associated performance enhancements, AMD won't be far behind with its forthcoming 1.8GHz Athlon XP, the model number of which has yet to be announced.
Intel introduced the 2.4GHz Pentium 4 in April, but the transition to a faster bus is somewhat forward-looking. Intel has said, for example, that the Pentium 4 will reach 3GHz in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, raising the bus speed helps Intel make room for new Celeron chips based on Netburst, the processor architecture debuted with the Pentium 4. Forthcoming Celerons can jump from their current 133MHz bus to the 400MHz bus used by the current Pentium 4 platform, sources have said, and sport much higher clock speeds than current Celerons.
Intel declined to comment on unannounced products.
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