CPU Shack - Intel Pentium 90 and 100 Debut

INTEL DEBUTS 90- and 100-MHz PENTIUM(TM) PROCESSORS
Family Expands as Latest-Generation Processor Enters Retail Market

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 7, 1994 -- Intel Corporation today announced the expansion of the Pentium(TM) processor family, the fastest desktop PC processors shipping today. The new 90- and 100-MHz family members, offering as much as 166 MIPS of processing performance, arrive as Pentium processor-based PCs are moving rapidly through all channels, including retail, with affordable price points for today's performance-oriented applications for the home and business user. The 100 MHz Pentium processor is nearly 175 percent faster than a 66 MHz IntelDX2(TM) processor. The new Pentium processors are built in two leading-edge Intel manufacturing facilities including Fab 10, a recently opened Ireland plant. The Pentium processor is on the most aggressive ramp in Intel's microprocessor history. As the next level of Pentium processor price/performance enters the systems marketplace, Intel has begun a $150 million 1994 Pentium processor marketing and advertising campaign that adds mass market retail channels for home PC buyers to traditional business-oriented marketing programs. "Higher-performance processors are entering the mainstream of the marketplace faster as the PC becomes a mass-market interactive home appliance," said Paul S. Otellini, senior vice president and co- general manager of Intel's Microprocessor Products Group. "The home PC spans entertainment, education, family business and home office uses -- all requiring the increasing levels of performance provided by the Pentium processor family."

Many Pentium processor-based PCs are priced well under $3,000, offering the best PC price/performance in the retail channel at affordable price points. This contrasts with past CPU generations in which this same level of affordability took as much as five years to achieve. Intel estimates that Pentium processor systems will account for 15 percent of 1994 shipments in the PC market segment, becoming 25 percent of Intel's shipments in Q4 and crossing over Intel486(TM) processors in 1995.

The Home Market
Converging on this rapid rate of Pentium processor deployment is the continued growth of the home PC market, which last year accounted for close to half the PCs sold. The home buyer's PC usage is changing, driven in part by the growth of home-office computing. In addition, multimedia applications sold in retail outlets, a boom in subscriptions to on-line services and the overall penetration of modems into the home market segment are further evidence of a movement to higher-performance requirements for the home PC. Likewise, market research shows that more than a third of the PCs sold into the home market segment in 1993 were based on high-end Intel486 processors and sold for the same prices at which Pentium processor-based PCs are emerging. "Conventional wisdom says that the home PC market is served by a low-end machine," Otellini said. "The facts are different, however. Multimedia education and entertainment applications are key pieces of the home PC marketplace and they require CPU performance as well as a robust system design." "Pentium processor-based systems provide all these features without sacrificing software compatibility with more than 50,000 applications ranging from business to games packages," said Albert Yu, senior vice president and co-general manager of the Microprocessor Products Group. "In addition, this compatibility and the future upgradability of Pentium processor system designs offer the investment protection consumers need." Intel is working cooperatively with OEMs and retailers worldwide to promote their Pentium processor systems to consumers as part of a $150 million marketing campaign. Print and television ads will run in the U.S. and Europe beginning this month.

New Processors
The two new Pentium processors introduced today operate at 90 MHz and 100 MHz frequencies. For performance comparisons, the processors have ratings of 735 and - 815, respectively, on Intel's consumer-oriented iCOMP(TM) index of processor performance and Specint92 ratings of 90 and 100. The 90-MHz processor is priced at $849 and the 100-MHz CPU is $995 in quantities of 1,000 pieces. The extensions to the Pentium processor family take advantage of a new 0.6-micron (a micron is about 1/100th the diameter of a human hair) manufacturing process that allows Intel engineers to increase performance and reduce costs. This same technology is being used to produce the IntelDX4(TM) processor family, also announced today. A 100-MHz IntelDX4 processor has an iCOMP rating of 435 (Specint92 51.4) and a 75-MHz version is 319 on the Intel performance scale. The IntelDX4 processors offer up to 50 percent more performance than the IntelDX2(TM) processor using essentially the same system design. "The world's best performing notebooks are based on the IntelDX4 processor," Yu said. "Mobile computer users, for the first time, can get the same level of performance as desktop users without compromising battery life." The 75 MHz IntelDX4 processor is $475 and the 100 MHz IntelDX4 processor is $580 each in 1,000-piece quantities. Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of personal computer, networking and communications products.