Once again, Intel has thrown the processor market into a state of change with the introduction of a new family of processors with multi-media extensions (MMX) - the P55C series.
These chips are claimed to improve multi-media and communications applications by enhancing audio and video compression and decompression, full-motion video, 2D and 3D graphical rendering and other processes.
The first releases are at clock speeds of 166 MHz and 200 MHz. Low voltage versions for notebook computers are also available at clock speeds of 150 and 166 MHz.
By the end of the year, Intel says each of the classic Pentium variety will have an MMX equivalent.
The architecture of this chip is based on the classic Pentium, but with an extra 57 instructions, a double-size 32 K internal cache and 4.5 million transistors (the original Pentium has only 3.3 million).
MMX uses single instruction multiple data (SIMD) processing to let the CPU perform one calculation simultaneously on up to eight data elements without a drop in speed.
