Intel Corp has delayed the release of its multimedia extensions enabled P55C Pentium variant until first quarter next year. It had previously said the chip would ship in the fourth quarter of this year. The P55C is the first Pentium chip to include Intel’s MMX instruction set – first unveiled in March (CI No 2,882) – which it claims runs 100% to 400% faster than previous Pentium processors. Intel said it wouldn’t be able to build enough P55Cs to meet demand, but denied there were manufacturing problems associated with the chip. US reports say Intel blamed the lack of MMX enabled applications and an OEM backlash brought on by too many offerings. Meanwhile, Intel is
bringing forward the launch of the Klamath MMX enabled Pentium Pro to early 1997.
