Intel Shows Off New Chip’S Speed

Intel Corp. took the wraps off the world’s fastest computer chip Tuesday, running at 1.5 gigahertz, in its latest bet that consumers and businesses increasingly will feel the need for speed.

Intel has been locked in a race with its main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., to produce the fastest chip. Willamette, which goes on sale this fall, would far outpace the processing power of AMD’s recently announced Athlon chip running at 1 gigahertz, or 1 billion bits of information per second.

Intel’s fastest chip being sold today is a Pentium III running at 800 megahertz, slightly more than half as fast.

Intel’s processors provide the brainpower for about 90 percent of the world’s computers. But critics say the company’s newest chips have far more processing power than the average consumer needs for popular computer uses, such as word processing, using spreadsheets and playing games. While developers are likely to write software that demands more powerful chips, doubts persist over how many customers will bite.