Ship Date: December

Surprised that Sharky Extreme is reviewing three new high-end CPUs from Intel just six weeks after the current top-of-the-line P3-733 was released?

To be honest we are too. We didn't expect to be evaluating production units of 800MHz CPUs from either Intel or AMD in 1999, however it seems now that both companies will end the millenium with announcements/shipments of this high MHz class of processor.

Today we're taking a look at Intel's three new big guns, the P3-750/100, P3-800/100, and P3-800B/133. Explanations of what these acronym-laced model names actually mean will follow shortly.

Whether or not Intel and AMD can continue down this profit margin-eating, production squeezing, high-technology slugfest is uncertain. All that is certain is that between August and December of this year available processor speeds have gone up by over 25%. That's almost as much as the unprecedented rise in the Internet-propelled American NASDAQ financial index over the same time frame.

Not a bad way to end the year technologically or financially speaking, eh?

With the capacity of four full-sized fabrication plants churning out .18 micron products, it's no surprise that Intel has been able to meet the demand of their Coppermine-class Pentium III CPU launch (October) while ramping up clock speeds to today's 750 and 800MHz units.

Initially there were reports from resellers of short supply in terms of the P3-700 and P3-733 CPUs, but the demand has been met for the most part now, and several vendors will happily sell you one of the aforementioned CPUs.

Meanwhile, regardless of the public posturing Intel or AMD practices in relation to each other, (they seem hell bent lately on telling the press that they operate without concern for what the other is doing, or planning) it seems that both companies are indeed closely watching what the other does.