Intel Corp., the world's largest maker of microchips, has begun selling a Pentium 4 processor that runs at two gigahertz, or two billion cycles per second, marking the doubling of the speed of computer chips in only a year and a half.
The Pentium 4 chips will be sold for $562 each in 1,000 unit quantities, San Jose, California-based Intel said. A chip that runs at 1.9 gigahertz will be sold for $375.
Intel introduced the chip in advance of a technical conference it is hosting.
In March of 2000, Intel and rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. reached a milestone in the development of computer technology by building microchips that run at a billion cycles per second, or one gigahertz.