Two new chips and a chipset from Intel

Intel has introduced two new microprocessors and a chipset for the PC market. These are expected to enhance the performance of high performance PCs.

The chips belong to the Pentium III class and have a clock speed of 600 MHz and 533 MHz. The two run on the high-performance 133 MHz system bus. The 600 MHz variant is priced at $615 a chip for a 1,000 unit lot while the 533 MHz chip comes at $369 a chip for the same quantity.

The chipset, Intel 810E, is an extension of the 810 chipset for the Celeron range of processors, and can also support Pentium III processors. It offers support for selecting speeds of 66 MHz, 100 MHz or 133 MHz on the front side bus and uses PC100 SDRAM for main memory.

The chipset also features the revolutionary accelerated hub architecture, which includes a graphics/ memory controller hub, an I/O controller hub and a firmaware hub. The graphics / memory controller hub provides the interface for the CPU and memory using Intel''s graphics technology and supports up to 512 MB of memory. The firmware hub stores system and video BIOS and features Intel''s random number generator. The random number generator has the hardware to generate random numbers which enable random numbers and ensures stronger encryption, digital signature and security protocol. The I/O controller hub forms a direct connection from the memory controller hub to the integrated AC97 controller, the ATA66 drive controller, dual USB ports and PCI add in cards.

The chipset is priced at $39.50 a set for lots of 10,000.

Intel has announced that it has delayed launching the 820 chipset due to issues of platform validation which may result in memory errors. Intel plans to introduce the chipset after resolving these issues.

Meanwhile, Intel is also introducing a new PC desktop board, the MicroATX form factor Intel CA810E, that will support the Pentium III processor.