Pentium 4 to be upped to 1.8GHz on 2 July

Squeezed in before 2GHz part ships?

Intel will fill out and extend its Pentium 4 line-up with two new versions in two weeks' time, on Monday 2 July, Web site X-bit Labs has claimed, citing sources close to the company.

The two chips will increase the P4's top clock speed to 1.8GHz, and add a 1.6GHz part between the current top-end part, the 1.7GHz chip, and the 1.5GHz P4.

Of course, with the release of the 2GHz P4 due this quarter, the 1.8GHz part won't stay at the top for long.

Hints that Intel was preparing 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz P4s emerged last month when the parts turned up on a Japanese Web site that claimed to have seen them listed in a Tokyo store.

Whether the new chips will be based on Intel's upcoming 478-pin mPGA packaging, or the current 423-pin P4 packaging isn't yet known. Intel's Rambus-based 850 mobo is designed for Socket 423 parts, but the PC133-based 845 (aka Brookdale) will use Socket 478 chips. ®

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Related Link

X-bit Labs: P4 update