Intel CPU Hits 2 GHz

Intel Touts Mobile Power

Yu also trumpeted Intel's mobile processor advances, including its two-speed SpeedStep mobile PIII chips and its low-voltage CPUs that can accommodate up to six hours of battery life.

However, battery life grows when the rest of the system uses less power, he said. Yu did not mention Intel competitor Transmeta, which claims its processor enables batteries to last for 8 hours.

Yu discussed progress on Intel's 64-bit Itanium processor. The company has sent 6000 prototype systems to help software developers work on new operating systems and applications. Yu said 350 applications are committed to the system.

Itanium systems won't be available for customer evaluation until late this year. Intel continues to produce the Xeon--available this week in a 1-GHz configuration--for its workstations and servers.

The Rambus Question

At a question session after the keynotes, Craig R. Barrett, president and chief executive officer, fielded questions about Intel's Rambus penchant. The company continues to endorse the more expensive Rambus in the face of industry benchmarks that show little performance gain over less expensive SDRAM.

"We still support Rambus," Barrett said, adding that Intel considers the memory appropriate for high-end systems. He noted, however, that other memory types could be more appropriate for lower price points.

"We don't want to price ourselves out of certain price points," he said.

Barrett wouldn't elaborate on whether Intel plans to develop a P4 chip set that supports Double Data Rate DRAM, the upcoming competition to Rambus. "It depends on economics," he said.

Barrett also acknowledged some of the execution problems Intel encountered over the last year, specifically surrounding its trouble-plagued 820 chip set.

Management issues caused some of the problems, Barrett said. Intel simply overlooked details as it worked to make a technology leap while rapidly expanding its product line, he said.