Athlon, Pentium III-800MHz parts give Japan trickle treat

The Japanese Pricewatch site that reports on Tokyo's busy goings on in Akihabara, is reporting that the first Pentium III 800s Coppermine processors are appearing for sale, at the same time that AMD's Athlon 800MHz chips are also going on sale. According to Japanese reader Battlax, chips are available in two stores. The prices for the 800MHz and 800MHz EB Pentium IIIs, both available in SECC2 flavours, are $912. Intel changed its branding of Pentium IIIs last autumn and is set, in the near future, to offer a somewhat bewildering display of Pentium IIIs in different packaging. To give a brief idea of what the Intel abbreviations mean, the A suffix denotes PIIIs using the 133MHz bus, the B the 100MHz bus, the C PIIIs using the SECC2 package, the D PIIIs using the flip chip FC-PGA package, the E suffix Celerons using the PPGA (plastic) packaging, the F processor suitable for dual configurations, G PIIs which include support for 256K cache, and H PIIIs which support 512K cache. The Pricewatch site also reports that Intel's 750MHz Pentium III is also for sale at $846 (¥88,000). According to our L&H (Lernhowtospell) Japanese and English translator, the 750MHz part was previously only able in FC-PCGA (letter D) packaging. The pages also say that while the Pentium III processors are for sale at top stores in Akihabara, Athlon 800s are being demonstrated, head to head against Intel boxes. You can find pictures of the parts at this place, and more information and photographs here. This latter page also shows a Rambus 700MHz 128MB RIMM as available. ®