K6-3 to have new name as software war begins

An executive at AMD UK today said that the K6-3 will have a different name -- but he won't say what it is. Paul Ridgway, at AMD UK, was talking at a VIA seminar in London this morning. He also the introduction of the K6-3, whatever it is called, will be "very, very soon" but didn't narrow that down either. However, Ridgway hit out at Intel and its strategy, and promised further OEM wins after AMD's success with Gateway. He said: "People are no longer saying: 'What Intel PCs have you got?' when they go into stores." The K6-3 will give the Pentium III a run for its money, he claimed. "The Pentium III and the K6-3 are good sparring partners, and the K6-3 is absolutely equal to the Pentium III." He promised support for the K6-2 and the K6-3 will continue into the next century. "We've plenty of headroom both the K6-2 and the K6-3," he said. "The K6-2 will compete against both Celeron and the Pentium II." He said Pentium III offered poor value and that AMD has a six to nine month lead over Intel. "Mainstream applications show no performance increase. It will take time for Intel to develop this," he said. "When the Pentium III hits the streets, it won't be running at mainstream price points. The K6-2 has been successful in the retail markets but you won't see the Pentium III there. Intel is going to take some time catching up with this. Maybe the software war has already started." ®