Don't Need Faster Chips? You Will

The processor in the new Power Macintosh G4 is so fast, an Apple Computer ad declares, that the computer ''has been classified as a weapon by the U.S. government.'' Intel (INTC) doesn't make claims quite that dramatic, but its recent announcement of fast new Pentium III processors will take Windows desktops and laptops into regions of speed where they have never gone before.

Right now, most folks don't really need all that speed. The slowest processors available in today's newest systems--the 433-megahertz Celeron for Windows and the 300-MHz PowerPC G3 in Macs--are plenty fast to surf the Web, read e-mail, and create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. But chip designers will press forward because they can, and programmers are scrambling to keep up. Eventually, the speedy new crop of chips on the market and on the drawing boards will make a noticeable difference in computers, particularly how easy they are to use.

Despite some fundamental changes, chip manufacturers aren't bothering with glitzy new names. Even though Intel's were code-named Coppermine, the chips are not made with new high-performance copper technology. They are being sold under the same Pentium III brand as older chips, with Coppermine Celerons due early next year. But the latest are being made under a new process that reduces the size of the lines etched on the chip from 0.25 microns (about six one-thousandths of an inch) to 0.18 microns. This means faster performance and less power consumption--especially important for portables.

LAPTOP GAP. Notebook manufacturers say moving from a 400-MHz Pentium II to a 450-MHz Pentium III offers a significant boost in performance with no loss of battery life. The Pentium II, which has already disappeared from new desktop machines, is being phased out for mobile use, too. Now, there will be only Celerons and the higher-performance Pentium IIIs available (or their equivalents from Advanced Micro Devices--the K6-2, K6-III, and Athlon).

Even with the newest chips, the fastest portables lag well behind desktops, where Pentium IIIs run at up to 733 MHz. That gap will narrow next year, when Intel releases its Geyserville chips. These run at high speed when a notebook is connected to AC, then slow down to conserve power when battery-powered. But the heat generated in full-power operation will keep the chips out of the thinnest and lightest notebooks, at least initially.

The most exciting processor news doesn't involve Pentiums but the rival PowerPC chips made by IBM and Motorola and used by Apple. The PowerPC has always been less power-hungry than the Pentium. Thanks to a new IBM-developed process to build circuits out of copper, the chips are dramatically more efficient. This allows Apple to achieve battery lives of five hours or more on its iBook and PowerBook notebooks, about two hours longer than comparable Pentium portables.

Comparing different types of chips is difficult, but in general a PowerPC 750, which Apple calls the G3, will outperform a Celeron or Pentium III at equal rated speeds. The new PowerPC 7400, or G4, is in another class entirely. Although its highest speed is only 500 MHz, performance is high enough to make the G4s subject to export restrictions, even if that doesn't quite make them weapons. The chip's secret is a special processing unit that allows it to do certain kinds of arithmetic extremely rapidly. This math--matrix multiplication--is used intensively in the image processing that is the Mac's strength. Taking full advantage of it requires that software be rewritten, so Adobe Systems has already come up with a G4 version of Photoshop.

NEW WORLDS. What lies ahead? Ease-of-use breakthroughs such as the Mac and Windows became practical only because of chips that were ''too fast'' for the software of the day. Now the power could be used for computers that monitor their own condition and have greater resistance to crashes. More speed can make emerging technologies such as speech recognition and encryption work much better.

Such enhanced software isn't around the corner. Even Windows 2000, due out next February, is not designed to take maximum advantage of the newest chips. For the time being, you probably don't need the fastest processor. But before long, software should be able to take good advantage of all the hardware can deliver.

Questions? Comments? E-mail tech&you@businessweek.com or fax (202) 383-2125

By STEPHEN H. WILDSTROM

TABLE: Microprocessor Milestones (extended)

Advances in chip design and manufacture are changing dramatically what computers can do for us. The best reflection is how the number of transistors on a chip and chip speed have increased since the introduction of Intel's basic lineup.

Processor: 8086
Introduced: 1978
Transistors: 29,000
Top speed: 10 MHz

Processor: 80286
Introduced: 1982
Transistors: 134,000
Top speed: 12 MHz

Processor: 80386DX
Introduced: 1985
Transistors: 275,000
Top speed: 16 MHz

Processor: 486DX
Introduced: 1989
Transistors: 1.2 million
Top speed: 25 MHz

Processor: Pentium
Introduced: 1993
Transistors: 3.1 million
Top speed: 66 MHz

Processor: Pentium Pro
Introduced: 1995
Transistors: 5.5 million
Top speed: 200 MHz

Processor: Pentium II
Introduced: 1997
Transistors: 7.5 million
Top speed: 300 MHz

Processor: Pentium III
Introduced: 1999
Transistors: 9.5 million
Top speed: 500 MHz

DATA: INTEL