Intel Corp duly unveiled the second of its three major P6 architecture chip launches yesterday, the much anticipated introduction of 350 and 400MHz 0.25 micron Pentium II Deschutes processors, along with the already derided Celeron processor, aimed at what Intel now terms Basic PCs. Earlier this month Intel launched its mobile Deschutes (CI No 3,382), and later this year promises the first Slot 2 Pentium IIs suitable for multiprocessing beyond dual processors (CI No 3,351). Along with the Pentium IIs came the 440BX AGP chipset, which supports the new 100MHz system bus and Advanced Graphics Port, and enables up to 1Gb of main memory. The Pentium IIs have been shipping for almost a month, and IBM lined up 100 OEMs to support the launch. The 266MHz Celeron, which it replaces the current Pentium with MMX, attracted 40 supporters. Intel somewhat defensively described it as superior in every way to the Pentium with MMX. It uses the new 440EX AGPset, designed to support the slower, 66MHz bus on the Celeron. All the chips are now shipping in volume and systems will become available over the next few months, with the earliest shipping at the beginning of next month. Intel says it has now almost entirely moved its chip production over to 0.25 micron process with three out of four factories now in production, and the fourth, in Ireland, due to go on stream over the next few months. Beyond that, is .18 micron, with the first chips due to go into production in the third quarter of 1999. In quantities of 1,000, the Pentium II 350MHz costs $621 and the 400MHz version $824. The 266MHz Celeron costs $155 per 1,000. Vendors announcing systems included Acer Inc, Compaq Computer Corp, Dell Computer Corp, Gateway 2000 Inc, IBM Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, Micron Electronics, NEC Corp and Quantec Inc.
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