Intel's 1-GHz Mobile Chip To Launch Monday

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March 15, 2001 (6:07 PM EST)

By Mark Hachman,

Intel Corp. will announce its 1-GHz mobile Pentium III on Monday, sources said, almost certainly beating rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to the punch.

Intel and AMD have dueled before, both preannouncing 1-GHz desktop chips last year. But this time is different: Intel's customers—OEMs such as Dell Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and IBM—have finished notebooks waiting to ship.

"For anybody who's trying to push the top end of mobile products, this is an important announcement," said Dean McCarron, principal at Mercury Research Corp., Scottsdale, Ariz.

The chip will find a home within high-end "desktop-replacement" notebooks, a segment designed to appeal to corporate customers and other consumers who want desktop-like performance on the go.

But McCarron said that segment has not panned out as well as some had hoped. In 2000, notebooks made up only about 19 percent of all systems, according to Mercury. In 2001, the firm estimates that the notebook's share will increase only slightly, to 19.4 percent.

As for AMD, its hopes for a 1-GHz mobile chip are tied to the Palomino, an upcoming redesign of the Athlon core. The mobile Palomino is expected to launch this month, although its speed might be significantly less than the 1.4-GHz expected of the desktop Palomino.

"When the mobile Athlon comes to market, it will appear with the Palomino core," said Ward Tisdale, a spokesman for AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif. AMD will be shipping up to and including 1-GHz mobile Athlons this quarter that will be available for PCs in the second quarter, he said.

If nothing else, however, OEMs professed themselves pleased with the available supply of microprocessors. A year ago, when AMD (stock: AMD) and Intel (stock: INTC) preannounced the respective 1-GHz desktop versions of the Athlon and the Pentium III; samples and volume supplies of the chips were not available for several weeks.

Now, at least one mobile-PC manufacturer will have 1-GHz laptops available in retail stores on the day of the launch, while direct-sales PC manufacturers said customers will also be able to purchase laptops on Monday. Most of the available machines will be in two- or three-spindle configurations, meaning a hard drive will be paired with an optical drive and maybe even a floppy. Prices will range from about $2,500.

"The thing holding back the [notebook] market most is simply cost," McCarron said. "You can get a $400 desktop PC. You can't get a flat panel for that price," he said.