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February 15, 1999

Pentium III Apps To Debut

Speech-recognition, graphics, and video capabilities boosted

By Tom Davey

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oftware applications for Intel's upcoming Pentium III processor will be unveiled this week, designed to take advantage of the performance boost the chip offers for 3-D imaging, video streaming, and speech recognition.

Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV will show a version of its Voice Xpress with an improved speech-recognition engine. The software, available in May, will display text more quickly and recognize more words, says Paul McNulty, VP of PC apps for Lernout & Hauspie.

The company is taking advantage of 70 so-called Katmai multimedia instructions etched into the Pentium III that enhance the performance of applications written for it. Software developed for earlier Pentium chips won't see that performance improvement but will take advantage of the chip's clock-speed increase to 500 MHz from 450 MHz for the fastest Pentium II.

The Pentium III will also have an embedded processor identification number. When activated through the operating system, the number can be displayed on a remote server-a security feature some software vendors plan to exploit. For instance, Intervu, which delivers Internet video capabilities to customers such as CNN, plans to use the feature to secure Internet transmissions that combine video of a person speaking with a PowerPoint presentation, says Intervu marketing VP Stephen Condon.

The Pentium III will let Cyra Technologies Inc.'s laser technique of capturing 3-D images work better on PCs. Previously, Cyra's products were used on workstations.

Users are eager for the upgrade. "We want to do things in different languages and with advanced graphics capabilities," says Jon Fullinwider, CIO of Los Angeles County, which is incorporating audio commands and advanced graphics on its Web pages.

Despite the Pentium III hoopla, analysts say Intel doesn't hold a technology lead with its new multimedia instructions. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has been putting its own version of the technology in its chips for the past six months. Software code optimized for one of the two platforms won't work as well on the other, but many software vendors will likely write for both.

Pentium IIIs will be available in PCs next week. The chip will also be used in low-end servers and workstations. Similar improvements for high-end servers and workstations will be in Pentium III Xeon chips debuting next month.

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