Continuing to keep the pressure on Intel in the new year, AMD introduced its fastest value-conscious Duron at 850MHz, beating Celeron both in top clock speed and performance, as usual.

Finally entering the value notebook market with a real processor (so long, K6-2), AMD unveils lower-power Durons. Though not exactly Transmeta-class in terms of power consumption, they trounce both similarly-clocked Crusoes and Celerons in performance.

Though not quite reaching the Pentium 4's clock speed, AMD is confident that their two new Athlons will sufficiently trounce the P4's real-world performance. Three out of four dentists agree.

AMD pushes its thumb down on Celeron even more by bumping up its budget-priced Duron starlet.

Previously expected to appear in Q1 of 2002, AMD's upcoming 64-bit 'Clawhammer' & 'Sledgehammer' server chips will not arrive now until the end of 2002. Prototype samples, however, may see the light of Christmas this year...

AMD re-enters the mobile market with a new SSE-enhanced, low-power Athlon 4 line, and adds to the mobile Duron family.

AMD takes on the entry-level workstation and server market with the unveiling of the Athlon MP (Multi-Processing) and companion 760MP chipset.

After a test release last week in Japan, AMD unleashes its fastest Thunderbird on the rest of the world. --Oh, and a new Duron, too!

Beefing up their mobile line and introducing the prefetch-enhanced 'Morgan' core for desktop Durons, AMD tries to steal some PR thunder from Intel and their upcoming launch of a 2GHz Pentium 4 next week.

Inching up to match Celeron's fastest clock speed, though over-matching Celeron's performance, AMD tries to salvage some press in response to Intel's mobile chip onslaught today.

'Palomino' is finally let loose from the starting gate, bearing new model numbers and heralding the True Performance Initiative.

Following from last week's official 'Palomino' launch, AMD adds the 'plus factor' to its dual processor line, accelerating Muppets. Curiously, the 1700+ cog is skipped.

AMD makes certain of its top performance spot by slipping out the next speed increment of their Palomino core.

AMD continues fall season assault with two new mobile processors.

AMD once again surpasses Celeron with the fastest value processor.

AMD matched their recent 'XP' speed limit with doubled CPU processing power for servers and workstations.

Any surprise AMD's market share has doubled also?

Powering GHz laptops for less than $1000, AMD packs more punch into value-priced portable computing.

Motorola ramps up their G4 line--after a year of inaction.

Making way for more 733MHz G4's and dual-CPU systems, Apple will be quietly pulling its PowerMac 667MHz systems from the shelves by the end of April.

Megahertz doesn't matter, according to Steve Jobs and Apple's own tests. Your mileage, of course, may vary if you run anything other than PhotoShop.

Discovered at NEC in 1991, IBM says they can now bend, shape, and purify these new nanotech building blocks. Silicon's days are numbered (in the thousands...).

Finally raising Celeron's anaemic bus speed to 100MHz, Intel matches AMD's value-conscious Duron at 800MHz. Meanwhile, select OEM's such as Dell are receiving clocked-down 1.3GHz Pentium 4's for their latest systems.

Intel takes on Transmeta with a new lower-power mobile Pentium-III and Celeron. Too bad they're only at 500MHz.

Intel shines on servers at IDF Spring 2001.

All 100MHz-bus Pentiums said to be on the chopping block by the end of March.

Intel noted our complaint about their previous mobile releases running at only 500MHz. At least this low-power Pentium runs at 700MHz when plugged in; 500MHz on the road.

Paul DeMone details the troubled history and future expectations of Intel's 64-bit problem child.

Just over a year since their announcement of a 1GHz Pentium-III for desktop computers, Intel can now crow about producing the first 1GHz processor for notebooks. Unlike last year, the new giga-books are actually available to buy.

Pumping up their high-cache (and high cash at nearly $4000 each) server line, this is said to be the last of the venerable Pentium-III flavoured Xeons.

Code-named after an archaeological dig in Israel, where it is being designed by the same team behind the ill-fated Timna integrated Celeron project (now scrapped), "Banias" will be built from the ground up with increased power management tools and lower power requirements. Expect Intel's newest mobile CPU toward the end of 2002.

Intel's D1C Development Fab in Hillsboro Oregon garnered this world-leading distinction. The larger wafers (normally only 200mm in diameter) provide increased cost efficiency and less waste than current fab processes.

Right on schedule, Intel burps out another little-bit-faster Celeron. Even CNet yawns...

As expected, Intel unveils its P4 Whopper-- at an unexpectedly low price, portending even more price slashing next week.

Still on track for October.

Intel undercuts AMD's Athlon 4 announcement with a chipload of lower-power, lower-performing mobile processors.

The Xeon (Foster) arrives, based on the Pentium 4 core.

For now, it is only available for single- or dual-processor workstations; server versions will appear before the end of 2001.

At long last, Merced (Itanium v 1.0) arrives, the product of a long, tortuous collaboration between Intel & Hewlett-Packard.

Poised to shake up the 64-bit server world, what everyone is really waiting for is McKinley (v.2), due next year. See here for more...

Less than a month after Itanium's official introduction, the server market consolidation begins, with Intel taking firm control. Time to update your Itanium vote.

FTC, where are you?

Intel continues to shoot for 2GHz and pushes their fastest Pentium 4 once more to the top of the PC processor heap. Celeron just keeps shuffling along...

Reminiscent of last year's embarrassing chip recall, Intel has admitted they cannot yet fix a bug in existing servers employing their Pentium-III Xeon 900MHz (2MB L2 cache version) processor. All such processor shipments have thus been stopped. Until the problem is solved, Intel will substitute the next-slower (700MHz) stepping of their large-cache Xeon instead, forgoing the US$1500 premium of the faster chip.

Is this a deal for server buyers? Check out our CPU Comparator to see for yourself.

Previously unveiled at TechX NY inside demo notebooks, Intel officially announced their new low-power, speed-enhanced, mobile (M) extension of the Pentium-III family-- Tualatin-- built at 0.13 microns.

Server versions of Tualatin (Pentium III-S) have been shipping since May, we find out. Desktop versions are also available, but only with a stripped-down L2 cache, so as not to threaten Intel's own Pentium 4.

Right on schedule, Intel once again claimed the Top Clock title at this fall's IDF.

Intel follows AMD's lead to 1GHz in the 'value' desktop processor market. Surprisingly, Celeron pushes past Duron in clock speed and performance for the first time ever!

Delayed for a month so Intel could complete some "extra validation" on the chip, the latest 'Foster' Xeon is still limited to dual-processor configurations only. Still, Intel hopes that more speed will entice more Xeons into more servers, rather than reign only as their workstation champ.

Intel launches a full-scale, mobile attack, betting that new notebooks this Christmas will help stimulate the flagging computer market.

Intel pounds it to AMD with a new, cache-boosted, budget processor, extending the "MegaHertz Myth" to 1.2GHz and revitalizing the long-lived Celeron line.

Intel's PR team takes a break from Comdex to leak word of their new 'Ultra-Low Power' Pentium-III for ultra-dense "blade" servers, based on the Tualatin core.

Expected in the second half of this year at speeds of 700MHz and above, Transmeta is banking on their new processor breaking farther into server and internet appliance markets.

Crusoe scales down to 0.13 microns in an attempt to upstage Intel's upcoming Tualatin announcement.

VIA boosts its mediocre Cyrix-III line, touting it as a lower-cost Celeron upgrade. Yeah, right.

More hype than horsepower as ever, VIA claims the first 0.13-micron PC processor will be one of their 'Samuel-II' models, rather than Intel's upcoming Pentium-III Tualatin.

VIA Technologies launches its new C3 processor line, the first 0.15µ CPU for PC's. With a small 52mm² footprint, low power consumption, and a new L2 cache, VIA hopes the C3 will garner 5% of the budget processor market by the end of the year.

Expect VIA's newest paper chips next year-- about a year too late.

As if they were not already lowly powered enough, VIA introduces its E-Series version of the C3, with ultra-low power consumption.

Boosting their flagship processor to more respectable speeds, VIA also introduces the first CPU manufactured using a 0.13-micron trace process. Still Celeron (Socket-370) compatible, this newest chip has now shrunk to become the smallest x86 processor at a mere 52 mm².

Once again going after Intel's established mobile Celeron notebook market, VIA brings its 0.13µ 'Ezra' chip out into the limelight at Computex Taipei 2001.

Another increment in VIA's 'Ezra' processor line. Pretty ho-hum in itself, even without being overshadowed by a certain world event.

Still playing catch-up in the value-priced processor game, VIA bumps its cool-running, Celeron-compatible C3 to 933MHz.

Before...

...Now

The processor war simply pales in comparison to the real thing...