Intel Dothan to debut on 10 May

Intel's 90nm Pentium M chips, codenamed 'Dothan', will at long last ship on 10 May, clocked at up to 2GHz - higher than originally planned when Intel was still considering a 15 February debut.

So claim sources close to the chip giant, according to Xbit Labs.

At this stage, it's not clear whether Intel will offer 533MHz frontside bus support or stick with the 400MHz FSB used by today's PMs. Circumstantial evidence from third-parties suggests it might, but the quoted clock speeds point to a 400MHz FSB for now.

Intel will offer three 90nm PMs: the 735, 745 and 755, clocked at 1.7GHz, 1.8GHz and 2GHz, respectively, and priced at $294, $423 and $637.

That will necessitate a price cut for the older, 130nm PMs, with the 1.5GHz, 1.6GHz and 1.7GHz parts falling to $209, $241 and $294 from today's $241, $294 and $423, respectively. Those reductions amount to cuts of 13.3 per cent, 18 per cent and 30.5 per cent, respectively.

A month later, Intel will release the Pentium M 715 and 725, presumably at 1.5GHz and 1.6GHz, matching 90nm parts to their 130nm predecessors, paving the way for the elimination of the 130nm chips altogether.

June will also see the arrival of 90nm, 'Prescott'-based Celeron desktop chips, offered as Celeron D 300-series chips. The 'D' is for 'desktop', in case you were wondering. The new chips will contain 256KB of L2 cache and operate a 533MHz effective bit rate frontside bus. They will also offer SSE 3 technology. ®

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