New processor generation.

Banking on its most successful brand name, Intel will dub its next-generation chip the Pentium III, according to sources close to the company. The new processor generation builds on the current Pentium II core, but it adds a set of 70 new multimedia-enhancing instructions known as the Katmai New Instructions on top of the existing MMX instruction set. Intel is expected to introduce the first two iterations of the long-awaited processor series, running at 450 MHz and 500 MHz, by early March, industry sources said. The fastest Pentium II processor today runs at 450 MHz. The first Katmai chips will be priced very aggressively, with the 450-MHz version expected to cost only about $50 more than a same-speed Pentium II processor, sources close to Intel said.