PIII vs. PIV Deathmatch

I’ve tried to avoid using wrestling terminology in comparison for a few reasons.

One big difference between a wrestling match and a product comparison is that the first is fixed, and you would hope the second isn’t.

But here, the match is as fixed as anything you’ll ever see coming out of the WCW or WWF, and Intel is the fixer.

The Intel plan for the desktop (as opposed to mobile) Tualatin is without doubt the most bizarre we have ever seen for an Intel CPU, or maybe any CPU.

It’s only supposed to be around for a handful of months. It’s going to cost a lot more than the “better” line of Intel chip. After its short, unhappy life, it’s going to be gelded and spend most of its product life as a eunuched Celeron III.

Update 10/1/01: Actually, turns out it won’t be gelded but the 256K cache models will become the Celerons.

And so the former long-time world champion ends his days, with his manager betraying him and telling him to throw the match to the new golden boy PIV.

But something tells me the old Pentium Pro/PII/PIII champ still has one good fight left in him, and isn’t going to follow the script.

Or rather, his fans won’t.

Because, old and battered and modified as he is, he’s still better than the golden boy at a lot of things that count to Intel fans, and just about as good as the Athlon in at least some things.

So the loyal fans to the champ may rally one more time, and shell out the extra money for Old Reliable, no matter what Intel says about Golden Boy.

What is really bizarre is that if you look at the financial realities, you begin wondering if this is a plot within a plot, that maybe the manager has a different fix in mind.

For one thing, he’ll make a lot more money if he does. Much higher price, much lower cost to make, that’s a nice trick.

Update 10/1/01: While this won’t be quite as lucrative when these are being sold as Celerons, these will be awfully cheap to make compared to PIVs (especially the .18 micron variety).

Golden Boy is going to be around a while, he can take the Intel (if not overall) crown next year after he slims down to .13.

Besides, there’s plenty of AOLers who’ll buy the PIV anyway. In the meantime, use this to squeeze every last buck out of those people who are “too smart” to buy the PIV, and would otherwise just buy Athlons.

Maybe Intel’s not so stupid after all.

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