Intel is poised for the mid-January launch of a 600MHz Mobile Pentium III chip featuring the SpeedStep technology, also known by the code-name Geyserville.

Speedstep slows the processor down when the notebook isn't plugged into a wall socket, lowering the 600MHz chip to 450MHz.

The PIII 600 is the fastest yet for mobile computers - a 100-MHz jump in clock speed above the current top end of the Mobile Pentium line.

But when Intel launches the new chip on January 18, rival AMD won't be far behind. AMD expects to offer its own power-shifting feature, code-named Gemini, in a version of the K6-2+ processor. A K6-2+ running at 500MHz or higher is scheduled to ship during the first quarter of 2000.

The story is posted at www.zdnn.com .