1999 is the year of the Internet, and the Pentium III processor is the tool you'll want to make the 'Net come alive in your PC. The Pentium III takes the basic processing muscle of the Pentium II and adds new enhancements designed to increase the performance of 3D graphics, audio, and multimedia software. The new enhancements consist of 70 new processor instructions, called 'Streaming SIMD Extensions', or 'SSE' for short. (The instructions have also been unofficially called 'KNI' and 'MMX-2'.) SSE streamlines the Pentium III's handling of 3D graphics, real-time MPEG2 encoding/decoding, AC3 audio & speech, realistic physics simulation, complex imaging effects, and similar multimedia tasks, making them much faster. The PIII can especially enhance your Internet experience, enabling a high data compression rate that helps compensate for the low bandwidth available from slow modem connections. Many new software titles for 1999 are expected to be optimized to take advantage of SSE acceleration, including 3D games, dictation software, professional graphics design, video playing/editing, and much more. Like the Pentium II and some versions of the Celeron, the PIII uses a Slot 1 processor connector. The Pentium III can therefore be an upgrade option for Pentium II and Slot 1 Celeron systems, but not for Pentium, Pentium MMX or Pentium Pro systems, all of which use a socket-based processor connector. The PIII has 512KB of L2 cache integrated into the processor package. This L2 cache operates at one half the processor speed, so that in this version of the Pentium III, the cache is running at 225MHz, increasing the CPU's efficiency across a wide range of applications. The processor itself is designed to operate on a 100MHz Front Side Bus, and it requires motherboards capable of 100MHz bus speed settings, as well as SDRAM memory which meets the PC-100 specification. The Pentium III's 32-bit architectural design is derived from that of the Pentium II, and includes that processor's advanced features such as Dual Independent Bus Architecture, MMX Media Enhancement, support for dual processing, and Dynamic Execution including multiple branch prediction, out-of-order execution, speculative execution and register renaming. The performance benefits of this advanced architecture are well-known, as is its floating-point calculation strength. Unlike other processors, the Pentium III is capable of simultaneously using its floating-point unit and its enhanced instruction set (SSE), resulting in even greater speed and fluid smoothness with 3D graphics and other FPU-intensive applications. The Pentium III also incorporates a serial ID number integrated into the silicon chip. This number benefits IT departments in managing PC information and assets, and it can also be used to increase user security in online business transactions. If the serial number is turned on, the user may authorize web sites to run a program which confirms the identity of the processor and user, adding an extra level of authorization to online profiles. The serial number is turned off by default, and can be turned on by a software utility available free of charge. If desired, the serial number can also be set to 'off' in the system BIOS, which prohibits even the software utility from re-activating it.
