Introduction
I doubt that I am telling you anything new by pointing out that the last 12 months saw a major change of who is supplying the majority of high-end x86 processors. While Intel used to own this position for over a decade, AMD has successfully taken that place away from once almighty Chipzilla and the guys in Satan Clara (yeah, I know it's "Santa Clara") can only hope that the upcoming Pentium 4 will finally change this fact.
The major problem that keeps Intel from playing a significant role in the Giga-Hertz-and-beyond-segment is not an inability to actually release processor solutions that would be fast enough, but Intel's utter inability to provide those wonderful products in actual volume. When AMD released its Giga Hertz Athlon in March this year Intel was able to counter with the release of its Giga Hertz Pentium III two days later (please read and ). However, until this very day Intel continued its inability to ship this processor in volume and only recently you could finally find some Pentium III 1 GHz processors at retailer shops. In those last 5 months the vast majority of 1 GHz systems shipped with AMD's 'Athlon inside', which made many journalists use the term 'paper release' for Intel's Giga Hertz Pentium III release.
AMD started to take its newly achieved position as provider of super-fast x86-processors that seriously, that it didn't panic after Intel's recent release of the on July 31. Instead of launching their counterpart, the Athlon at 1.1 GHz, right away, it continued to ramp up production for this product and stick to the planned release date of August 28, 2000. This is why you can find this new AMD processor at already now. Different to the anyway rather flaky Pentium 1.13 GHz from Intel, you can actually either buy Athlon 1.1 GHz processors on their own or in systems right now.
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