No GHz for you

According to this story over on The Register, Intel's recently announced 1GHz Pentium III processor are still in very limited supply, and they are "initially working with customers that can provide the biggest impact in the consumer enthusiast segment at launch". What does this mean in practice? You won't see a boxed P3-1GHz in the shops until some time this summer ("third quarter" in marketing speak), and most system builders won't get any until then either!

A quick check at Dabs Direct showed that 800MHz Athlons are already in plentiful supply, with 850MHz Athlons having a "1-2 days" availability, while Intel's fastest processor currently available is the P3-600, with everything faster than that either "temporarily unavailable", or available in "1-2 weeks".