Intel ships new low-power processors

By Staff -- Purchasing, 7/13/2000

Intel has begun shipping five new microprocessors for portable computers. The new chips boost processing power and lower power consumption.

The new mobile Pentium III and Celeron chips are the latest using Intel's SpeedStep technology. The chips save power by running slower on batteries than when the computer is plugged into an electrical outlet.

One new chip is a 750-megahertz Pentium III mobile processor that uses less than two watts when running on battery power. Another is a Pentium III at 600 MHz that uses less than one watt. Three new Celeron mobile chips running at speeds between 500 megahertz and 650 megahertz also were introduced.

The new Pentium III mobile at 750 megahertz costs $562 in quantities of 1,000. The 600MHz version is $316. The 650MHz Celeron costs $181, and the low-power version at 600 and 500 megahertz will cost $134.

The new chips are seen as an effort to ward off Transmeta Corp., a startup that is introducing low-power processors. The company says laptops and Internet appliances using its Crusoe chip will last twice as long as those that use Intel processors.