This article is more than 1 year old

Intel spin doctors have taken over the asylum

Barrett says P4 is launching early

Craig 'Five Speeches' Barrett has been at it again. Speaking to hacks in Taipei on Friday, he claimed that Pentium 4 was launching ahead of schedule.

According to Barrett, P4 was originally scheduled for launch "at the end of the year".

Craig, please read your own company's roadmaps. Willamette/P4 was originally to appear in 2H 2000. This was then refined to Q3 2000. Later still, October 30th was earmarked, finally slipping to November 20th to allow a graphics glitch with the Tehama chipset to be rectified.

If the chip was originally billed as shipping sometime between June and December, and later changing to October to December, the original plan must have included the possibility of a launch between June and September.

And it's interesting to note that almost exactly a year ago The Register ran an apology for getting the launch date wrong.

On October 29, 1999, we wrote: "Yesterday, Intel's CEO, Craig Barrett, showed a slide to analysts that has Willamette, clocked at over 1GHz, slated for the second half of next year."

Forgotten about that, eh Craig?

For Intel to now claim that year-end was the target all along shows either that Intel believes world+dog are complete imbeciles, or that Chipzilla's monstro PR machine has now taken over and is operating Barrett by remote control.

Please give us credit for some intelligence. Barrett says: "Pentium 4 is launching early." The Reg says: "Who do you think you're kidding, Craig?" ®

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