Ship Date: Now

It's been a long time coming but today is the day that Intel releases their first real high-end desktop CPU core architecture change since 1997.

Internally dubbed "Coppermine", this new Pentium III line will supply processors for the desktop throughout the year 2000 and into 2001. It also is the technology basis for the new mobile Pentium III CPU line that launches today as well in 400, 450 and 500MHz units.

Oh and did we mention yet that Intel's new multiprocessor/workstation mainboard core logic chipset, the RDRAM-powered i840, also launches today?

As you can see we've got a lot to cover, so lets dive right in and get started with what will surely be remembered as one of the most important days for Intel in all of 1999.

As most Sharky Extreme readers know from seeing the various news posts and updates we've made in the past six months regarding Intel's Coppermine cores, Mobile P3s and the i820 and i840 core logic sets, all has not been rosy in 1999 within the house that Gordon Moore built.

Delays, technology hurdles and the development of new methods to bring mass production of their new designs to market has hampered Intel's ability to routinely hit their own deadlines for new product introductions for most of this year.

Whether by fate or by chance, today finds Intel introducing multiple products and platforms simultaneously, while still offering a "sometime in Q4/99" estimate for the delayed i820 core logic set's "re-introduction".

Originally intended to ship sometime during the summer, the first mobile Pentium III CPUs will be showing up in laptops this week for the first time.

The new mobile P3s are the first of their kind and, thanks to the die-size reduction that the Coppermine moniker signifies (.25um to .18um), they are also the smallest size CPUs to ever be produced for a Windows-capable laptop.

Measuring a scant 28.2 x 34.2mm in size, the new Coppermine Mobile P3 cores are over 20% smaller than the mobile P2s they're meant to replace, while offering 256KB of integrated, full speed L2 cache…a feature the original P2 mobiles never offered.