Intel Pentium III Prototype - Party Like It’s 1999

Intel's Pentium Processors once powered 80% of the world's Personal Computers. When a flaw was discovered in the flagship Pentium in 1994, CEO Andrew Grove challenged customers to prove they deserved a replacement.

That was the kind of power the company had in the marketplace even getting the attention of FTC lawyers objecting to a CPU monopoly. According to watchdogs, shade was being thrown because of embedded processor serial numbers that were hard to kill.  In fact this prototype was sent to developers like Rainbow Systems hard at work invading your privacy. 

This surviving Katmai prototype "White Box" contains one of the first Pentium III's - without a way to disable the embedded serial number in the BIOS.  According to its wiki, Rainbow Systems, CA used early PSN prototypes to develop software to tie computers with names for the NSA.

This Prototype uses an ES Pentium II Katmai 500 Mhz and 440 BX Chipset

The PowerPC Alliance and Advanced Micro Devices introduced new product to loosen Intel's grip on the CPU market.  Without a RISC processor of his own, Grove distributed a tweaked army of white box prototypes to developers. They were improved cache versions of Intel's Pentium II called Katmai running at 450 and 500 Mhz.

A surviving Katmai "White Box" contains one of the first Pentium III's - without a way to disable the PSN in the BIOS. The dates on this prototype suggest that the PII Katmai CPU was re-badged Pentium III as late as March 1999.  I may even speculate that Intel was considering slipping this into a PII update with little fanfare. 

PowerPC got stuck at 450 Mhz, failing to reach Apple's 500 Mhz speed claim. Despite calling G4 a "Supercomputer on a Chip" Jobs was playing a weak hand and knew it. AMD CEO Jerry Sanders failed to take his goal of 30% market share. AMD hit 26% at its high water mark in 2006.

Andy Grove remained chairman of Intel until Intel's Haifa operation started on PIII inspired Core Architecture. Moore’s Law is kept in full force today thanks to some incremental work creating the Pentium III.