Not everybody is impressed with Intel Corp’s Pentium or P5 chip. In the latest issue of Microprocessor Report, editor Michael Slater concludes that Intel’s pre-emptive strike against the Advanced Computing Environment Initiative turns out to be, at best, a result of wishful thinking, and at worst, a fraud. Calling the P5 a paper tiger responsible for the collapse of ACE and claiming that the chip fails to live up to its promises, Slater notes that the P5 is turning out to be not a few months behind the R4000, but over a year later – and by the time the P5 is shipping, the MIPS semiconductor partners will be shipping the R4400 with perhaps 50% better performance than the P5.
