Will Willamette be a Year 2000 bet?

Our friend Kyle over at HardOCP has managed to get his mitts on an intriguing page from a secret Intel roadmap. The page shows packaging for Intel processors through until the second quarter of next year and states that customers do not need to think about 418 pin grid array (PGA) sockets for Pentium IIIs for the whole of next year. One processor, however, which does and will have 418 pins next year is the infamous slow moving river Merced, as reported here earlier. (Chipzilla sockets it to us). As that article shows, another pin number to remember is 502. However, when Intel says customers don't need something soon, it does suggest that they may need that very same thing a little later, so we'll have to wait and see whether Willamette is the guilty party. As one wag on an investor's board asked our reader-of-the-month Paul Engel: "Willa-its-original-release-date-be-mette?" ® Reader of the Month: Paul Engel