More than 200 companies previewed products optimized for Intel's Pentium III at a Silicon Valley bash held to pay homage to the new chip.

Essentially a Pentium II core with added zip from more than 70 multimedia-oriented instructions, the Pentium III is set to hit the market on Feb. 28 in the form of PCs priced as low as $2,000.

Despite continued protests against the PIII's use of an onboard serial number, a feature opposed by some advocacy groups as a blow against online privacy, Intel officials confirmed plans to ship the processor with it's embedded ID code intact.

A full story appears on ZDNN .