Intel has decided to push back the launch date for its
4GHz Pentium 4 desktop processor to the first quarter of 2005,
after reviewing its launch schedules and determining it would not
be able to introduce the product in sufficient volume.
President and chief operating officer Paul Otellini first told
financial analysts last year that Intel would raise the clock speed
of the company's flagship Pentium 4 processor to 4GHz by the end of
2004.
There are no manufacturing or design issues behind the delay,
said Bill Kircos, an Intel spokesman.
"In light of the current environment, we are reviewing our
product schedules top to bottom. To get to the volume we want to
[with the 4GHz Pentium 4], we are telling [our customers] we're
moving to a Q1 launch date," Kircos said.
Intel has been known for its design and manufacturing precision,
but it has not lived up to that billing this year. Both of its
initial 90-nanometer products, the Prescott desktop chip and the
Dothan mobile chip, were delayed past their originally scheduled
launch dates.
The launch of the Grantsdale chipset, which Intel called one of
its most important product launches in years, was marred by a
manufacturing glitch that forced the recall of certain chipsets.
And Sonoma, Intel's codename for the next generation of its
Centrino mobile technology, has been delayed after Intel identified
design problems in the chipset.
The company's recent performance prompted a memo from chief
executive officer Craig Barrett to employees last week calling for
changes in the way Intel rolls out its new products.
"This is not the Intel we all know and that is not acceptable,"
Barrett wrote.
Barrett clearly is not pleased with Intel's recent performance,
and the company will probably grow more conservative with its
future launch schedules, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst
with Insight 64.
"I think it's a consequence of Craig Barrett having laid down
the law to Intel last week that he didn't want any more broken
schedules. When management says, 'Meeting your schedules is a
priority,' then the natural outgrowth of that is people make more
conservative schedules," Brookwood said.
Brookwood said he did not expect a sudden raft of revised
schedules, but that it was not surprising that a high-profile
product such as this would see a schedule change.
Tom Krazit and Robert McMillanwrite for IDG News
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