Intel to bump processor and bus speeds

As reported yesterday in WinInfo, Intel Corporation will unleash 600 MHz Pentium III and 500 MHz Celeron processors as early as next week. But the fun doesn't stop there: In the next two months, the microprocessor giant will ramp up speeds on all of its products, including the system bus that forms the basis of virtually every PC made today.

On August 23rd, Intel will release its eight-way Xeon processor array. This chipset will support up to eight 550 MHz Pentium III Xeon processors with 2MB of cache each, with a 100 MHz frontside bus and up to 64 GB of RAM.

Then, on September 15th, Intel will release 433 and 466 MHz versions of its Celeron processors for laptop and notebook computers. Systems that use these processors will rival comparable Pentium II systems for a fraction of the price.

Late in September, Intel will finally bump the speed of the PC system bus from 100 MHz to 133 MHz when it introduces the Intel 820 chipset. This new bus will be accompanied by 533 and 600 MHz Pentium III processors that are designed for the higher speed. While everyone seems to get wrapped up in processor speed, it is this bump in bus speed that will make the biggest speed difference: If you're in the market for a new PC, try and hold off until September 27th if you can. The next major speed bump is right around the corner