Intel Shelves 4-GHz Pentium In Favor Of Other ProjectsIntel Shelves 4-GHz Pentium In Favor Of Other Projects

Intel has told customers it will shelve the 4-GHz Pentium 4 processor it had planned to introduce in the first quarter of next year.

Instead, the company will concentrate on improving other technologies within its processor line and deliver devices with larger on-chip memory.

"We have the ability to do a 4-GHz device, but we're pulling that team off to work on multicore designs and our StarT technologies," a spokesman said.

The StarT technologies include hyperthreading, security features, virtualization for desktop processors, virtualization for servers, 64-bit extensions, and Intel Active Management Technology, which enhances remote management of PC systems.

Intel will bring a 3.8-GHz Pentium 4 with 2-Mbit on-chip memory into general availability in the fourth quarter, the spokesman said. That device has previously been available only as an "Extreme Edition" processor aimed at high-performance systems.

Currently the high end of its general availability Pentium 4 line is a 3.6-GHz device with 1 Mbit of on-chip memory.

This is the second alteration in Intel's plans for the 4-GHz Pentium 4. In July, the company said it would delay release of the device from an original target of late 2004 until the first quarter of 2005.