Intel is capping its processor speeds at 3.8GHz in a move some have interpreted as the final humiliating climbdown of a difficult year. Certainly it marks the end of an era, after more than three decades of cranking up clock speeds to power the IT revolution. The capping is not permanent but it means the much heralded 4GHz Pentium 4 is unlikely to appear until 2006, up to two years after expected. Even then, clock rates will not increase at the rate of the past few years; Intel president Paul Otellini said as much at the Intel Developer Forum back in September.
|