Instant Alerts Get email Alerts on stories that match your interest. To choose a keyword, click here. Choose the right expert at the right price, anytime day or night, at PC World Expert Help . It will be ready for production in the second or third quarter of next year, he said. The 0.13 figure refers to the size of the smallest feature on the chip.
Smaller features allow the chip to operate at higher clock speeds and use less power.
Current versions of the Pentium III use a 0.18-micron production process. One micron is one-thousandth of one millimeter. An Intel spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Northwood and Tualatin were valid code names for improved versions of planned products, and that the improvement was the move to 0.13-micron production processes. However, the spokesperson cautioned, they are a long way into the future, and have not been officially fixed on the road map.