Intel Denies Report of Prescott Delay

An official for Intel Corp. denied a report Monday that said the companys 3.0GHz “Prescott” chip has been delayed until April.

Taiwan IT daily Digitimes reported that Intel delayed shipments of the 3GHz Prescott chip from mid-March, due to problems at the companys wafer foundry.

However, Intel spokesman George Alfs said the 3GHz chip has been available for sale since the companys announcement of the new chips on Feb. 2. As proof, he cited retailer NewEggs product listing of the part, which is being sold for a specal sale price of $235.

A quick ExtremeTech survey of dealer sites listed on PriceWatch, however, shows the Prescott chips listed by only a handful of merchants. The Digitimes report claimed that the alleged shortages would only affect distributors; the effect on OEMs was not known.

Intel launched the 2.8-, 3.0-, and 3.2GHz Prescott chips under the Pentium 4 brand name on Feb. 1. The Prescott core contains new instructions designed to improve the performance of multimedia, as well as a larger 1MB cache. Intel also “paper launched” a 3.4GHz Prescott, stating that PC OEMs would ship PCs based on the new processor at a later date.

Intels desktop-use 3GHz Prescott will be available in a 775-pin package, not the 478-pin package of the 2.8GHz Prescott which the company launched in early February, Digitimes said.