First details of the performance of the AMD K6-3 (Sharptooth) have emerged with a review appearing on the World Wide Web. A review on Sharky Extreme claimed that the 400MHz part, which ships in February of 1998, only needed a BIOS update to run successfully on K6-2 motherboards. The review added that the product “now shines” as a chip for the gaming market. Rana Mainee, European director of market research at AMD, said that samples of the K6-3 were now out with major OEMs and that it would achieve volume in the middle of Q1 1999. He said: “Sharptooth will be head to head with Katmai (the Pentium III).” While he refused to discuss pricing, he said that AMD will pitch it below its Katmai offerings, which will be introduced late February 1999. The AMD introduction is intended as a spoiler to the Katmai launches. The reviewer at Sharky said that AMD will introduce a 450MHz part within four weeks of launch. The 400MHz part will cost around $350. ®