Stories by Tom Mainelli

Three Minutes With Frank Spindler

Frank Spindler is vice president of the Intel Corp. Architecture Business Group and director of marketing for its Mobile Computing Group. PC World recently quizzed him about SpeedStep, the future of mobile computing, and the speed races.

Micron Kiosks Open in Best Buy

You no longer need a PC to order one from Micron Electronics Inc. The direct-PC vendor, which sells built-to-order PCs on its Web site (and by phone), is teaming with Best Buy to offer MicronPC.com systems via kiosks in stores across the country.

First Look: Sony's PlayStation 2

Details. Unbelievable wow, that looks like video, how do they do that? visual details. That's what I noticed in my first minutes of quality time with Sony Corp.'s new PlayStation 2.

Apollo Slashes Printer Prices

Hewlett-Packard Co. subsidiary Apollo Consumer Products Inc. is marking a year of selling stylish, sub-$100 color ink jet printers by taking prices to a new low; with rebates, one new model sells for $19.

Intel's 1-GHz PIII Edges AMD's Athlon

Intel Corp. strikes back today, launching its 1-GHz Pentium III processor just days after Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s 1-GHz Athlon made its debut. The chips will be scarce at first, but they're fast: An early 1-GHz PIII system edges systems powered by the 1-GHz Athlon. AMD won the race to 1 GHz; Intel wins narrowly for best performance.

Three Minutes With Patrick Gelsinger

Patrick Gelsinger is vice president and general manager of Intel Corp.'s Desktop Products Group. He joined Intel in 1979, and worked on the i386 and i286 chip-design teams. Gelsinger spoke at the recent Intel Developer's Forum and during a break, PC World asked him about the company's rocky 1999, and its promising 2000.

AMD Ships 1-GHz Athlon

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. beats Intel Corp. to the punch Monday, launching its 1-GHz Athlon processor. You can buy one of the fast new systems from Compaq Computer Corp. and Gateway Inc., and PC World.com's exclusive WorldBench 2000 test results prove the CPU delivers its promised boost.

Micron Launches Tiny ClientPro

Micron Electronics Inc. jumps on the small-is-beautiful corporate desktop bandwagon with its announcement Monday of the MicronPC.com-branded ClientPro Cf.

Dell Ships Flashy Inspiron Notebooks

Dell Computer Corp. gets more colorful Wednesday with the release of its Inspiron 3800 line of notebook PCs, which offers consumers many choices regarding processors, screen sizes, and notebook case colors.

Sony Set to Launch PlayStation 2

This week, impatient Japanese video game players are queuing up to be the first in their prefecture to fire up Sony Corp.'s groundbreaking PlayStation 2. Clearly, this is a system worth getting excited about, even though it won't hit U.S. shores for several months. The update to Sony's successful game system boasts an innovative processor and exceptional graphics, plus some stuff you don't expect on the playground.

Dell unveils wireless net, new Latitudes

Dell has grown its business product lines as of Monday, announcing its TrueMobile wireless networking package and adding to its Latitude line notebooks that support Intel's SpeedStep-enabled Pentium III processors.

Rambus standard rolls ahead (slowly)

Reports of the death of Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory have been greatly exaggerated. Critics of RDRAM say product delays and high prices killed the mem-ory standard before it could take hold. They argue that new, high-performance versions of SDRAM such as PC-133 and the upcoming Double Data Rate are less expensive and easier to implement.

Intel Still Questions Win 2000 Needs

Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp.'s public squabble over Windows 2000's processor requirements continues. On Thursday, Microsoft rebutted the chip maker's claims that to run well, the new operating system requires significantly more processing power than most computers offer.

Intel: Make PCs Simpler

Despite industry steps in the right direction, today's PC is still too difficult to set up and use.

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