Perhaps Intel’s greatest strength as a corporation is its ability to see the long-term, big picture. If there’s one thing Intel doesn’t do, it’s fly by the seat of its pants (at least not for very long). Forget today or tomorrow, or even next month or next quarter - Intel's focus is always two, five, or even ten years down the road. That's a formidable ability, and a tough one for competitors to combat.

An excellent example can be seen with respect to Intel’s Pentium 4 processor. Perhaps rushed to production, and certainly underperforming when compared to competitors’ offerings, the Pentium 4 appeared rather disappointing at first. Intel, however, remained focused on what the Pentium 4 would become, rather than what it was at present. Now, after a die shrink, increased cache size, and a faster bus clock, we’re finally able to witness the result of that vision.

For at least the remainder of this year, and probably well into the next, those decisions and plans made by Intel a few years ago will keep the Pentium 4 atop the performance throne. While AMD seems to have breathed new life into its Athlon with a second revision of the Thoroughbred core announced last week, it's likely that raw Megahertz numbers will keep Intel on top for the remainder of the year. Thus the Pentium 4 will remain relatively unchallenged until AMD’s newer Hammer architecture arrives.

Of course, sitting idle would be inviting disaster, especially now that Thoroughbred has found its legs, and is making a race of it. So over the next few months, Intel will continue to ramp the clockspeed of its processors. Today, August 26th, 2002, we bring you the latest such bump in clockspeed, as Intel pushes the Pentium 4 up to 2.80 GHz.