The mid-end Intel chip will be preceded by a high-performance Pentium 4, previously known as the Willamette, which will appear in high-end desktops in the fourth quarter and then scale to the mainstream PC later next year, sources said at last week's Platform 2000 conference in San Jose.

However, because AMD's new, high-speed desktop Athlons will be approaching 1.5 GHz next year, Intel has decided to shrink the Pentium III die to boost its frequency to 1.4 GHz.

The new Pentium III speed grade will be among the first to use Intel's new 0.13-micron wafer processing with copper interconnect, sources said. The line will also allow Intel to perfect high-volume production of the new process technology using a mature and proven Pentium III core before transitioning to the next-generation Pentium 4.

At the same time, Intel is said to be readying a 200-MHz frontside bus to support the faster Pentium IIIs. The Athlon has had a 200-MHz frontside bus from its inception, a speed that was increased this year to 266 MHz to match the clock of the DDR SDRAM.

Intel's new Pentium III line is different from the 1.13-GHz chip the company is announcing next week. That will be the last stretch of the 0.18-micron Coppermine process before the 0.13-micron Pentium IIIs come to market, observers said.

Sources familiar with Intel's processor road map spoke on condition of anonymity. However, Bert McComas, an analyst at InQuest Inc., Gilbert, Ariz., and sponsor of the Platform 2000 conference, said in a keynote session last week that Intel will unveil the 0.13-micron Pentium III chip to extend its speed range in the mainstream market. He said Intel desperately needs a new high-frequency mainstream MPU to compete against AMD's Athlon Thunderbird and upcoming Ultra.

"Intel couldn't afford to wait on developing a mainstream desktop Willamette chip," McComas said. "They've returned to the old tried-and-true Pentium III core as a quick fix."

An Intel spokesman declined to comment on the issue, but said the company plans to produce Pentium III and Pentium 4 processors on its new 0.13-micron process. He denied that a 0.13-micron Pentium III was a response to AMD's Athlon, but instead was part of Intel's normal road-map progression.

The long-awaited Pentium 4 launch will proceed as planned later this year, according to sources, beginning with limited volumes of a high-performance, dual-memory-channel device for workstations and high-end PCs. A lower-priced single-channel version is set to follow for the mainstream desktop segment.

However, development of the follow-on version was proceeding slowly, sources said, and even if on schedule would have arrived more than six months after AMD's pace-setting Athlons.

The 1.4-GHz Pentium III processor can use double-data-rate SDRAM to compete against Athlon desktops and notebooks using the same high-speed memory. But because Intel's agreement with Rambus Inc. to promote Direct Rambus DRAM contractually bars it from making its own DDR-enabled chip sets, Intel will depend on third-party vendors Acer Laboratories, Micron Technology, Silicon Integrated Systems, and Via Technologies to supply the core-logic devices.

The high-performance Pentium 4 will support Direct RDRAM and will be the first to use Intel's new quad-pumped IA-32-bit bus line. Intel so far has refused to license either its IA-32 or IA-64 bus technology to third-party chip set makers, although Via has indicated it plans to develop a DDR-enabled Pentium 4 chip set for the mainstream market with or without an Intel license.

Because the high-performance Pentium 4 is targeted at the smaller work-station segment, rival chip set vendors are likely to leave that market to Intel and Rambus and concentrate on preparing DDR logic controllers for the follow-on processor.

With its trickle-down approach, Intel's Pentium 4 microprocessor strategy represents a return to the vintage business model that had worked well for the company in the past, McComas said.

"By coming out with a new 0.13-micron Pentium III processor, they buy more time to develop and fully test [a mainstream] Willamette," he said. "The initial high-performance version introduced in Q4 will have high margins to underwrite development, validation, and testing costs. It'll also allow Intel to start building up an infrastructure to support its new IA-32 and IA-64 frontside bus.

"At the same time, Intel will count on high-volume sales of the new Pentium III core MPU to try to maintain market share while transitioning gradually into the new architectures," McComas said.