If an Announcement of a Hot New Chip Falls in the Forest...

Not all that long ago, we all got terribly excited when Intel announced a significant new chip. We knew their names and knew which one we had in our PCs -- the 386, 486, Pentium. We felt left behind the minute the new one came out.

But things are different now. Intel today talked about a new microprocessor that will be out at the end of the year that will be 40% faster than current chips. And many computer users really don't much care.

The chip will be called Penryn, which sounds like a minor Harry Potter character, or a TeleTubbie. (Penryn is, by the way, a town in Cornwall.)

The microprocessor used to be the chief reason a computer worked as fast or slow as it did. That's not so much the case anymore. Today's chips are astoundingly fast for most things people do on computers. When the computer balks, the chip is usually not the reason. The memory could be jammed full. The hard drive might be searching for the files. The broadband connection probably isn't fast enough. The chip is generally waiting around for something to do, feet on its little desk, while the other computer parts get their acts together.

So for most people, having a chip that goes faster is like having a car that can hit 200 MPH. It's only just so helpful.

(Photo of Penryn by Marc Hill/Alamy)

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