Was there a desktop Pentium made at 233 MHz?

[Dputiger]

Question--and I need a definitive answer.

As I remember, the fastest Pentium ever made was a 200 MHz MMX chip. Is this true? I DO remember a mobile laptop version that IBM made that ran faster (up to 300 MHz) but I don't ever remember seeing a Pentium 233. In fact, I can see a very good reason for Intel NOT to make one--a Pentium 233 would've overlapped the Pentium II 233--and made the latter less attractive.

This is important because I have a new business client who may have gotten scammed a bit--and even though it happened a few years back I'd still like to know.

[Tomteriffic]

Nope, the Pentium 233 MMX (in the P55 socket package) is still being made, as far as I know. Fastest thing Intel ever made for a Socket 7.

[FreakyOCR]

Yep a 233 is the fastest socket 7 Intel ever made....

I have one!

[Dputiger]

Why would Intel still be making Socket 7 processors, save perhaps a very, very few for specialized programs like NASA (which still use this era of technology)?

Intel left Socket 7 purposefully to intro Slot 1. Why keep making chips for a standard they themselves abandoned and wanted to die?

[Tomteriffic]

Originally posted by Dputiger
Why would Intel still be making Socket 7 processors, save perhaps a very, very few for specialized programs like NASA (which still use this era of technology)?

Intel left Socket 7 purposefully to intro Slot 1. Why keep making chips for a standard they themselves abandoned and wanted to die?

Simple, because people still buy 'em The tooling is paid for, the fab is there, and as long as there's still a market, why not?

They still do a run of Slot 1 P3's now and again, too.

[Dputiger]

You missed my point.

Who buys them? With a Duron 800 at $39 new (used going even cheaper) and K6-2 450's at $20, with Celeron 400's at $22, etc, etc, who needs Pentium's?

You have to remember something--Intel has limited Fab space, even with 13 fabs. Though they can produce a stunning amount of microprocessors, they NEED those chips.

The original Pentium was intro'd on much higher process than Intel currently uses. I'm not sure what it was, honestly, but I THINK it was .35. It may have been higher.

By comparison, Intel today uses a .13 micron process. Far, far, more advanced.

Why bother with a Pentium?

[kendo]

the company i work for does work for local area hospitals and they (7) of them in my area, will not replace a system for this kind of problem even if it means used parts and higher pricing.
i have noticed the same attitude in government offices where we have done computer work, some of it is software related and some of it makes no sense whatsoever?????

[Reido!]

You might be able to use them in embedded applications. I think RIM's Blackberry runs on a 386

[Bob The Great]

I would think it was because of the insane amount of cache they had! They make great little server chips if you set a dualy up, and are very reliable. Great with Linux espiecially!

[Tomteriffic]

From our point of view, WHY??? is certainly a valid question, but there's just no telling. A good friend of mine who works in the largest independent computer store in Missouri just had a guy walk in and insist on Pentium 233's for several hundred boxes for a pharmacy chain network. Go figure.