Business
Upgrade breathes new life into old Pentiums
Evergreen Technologies has laid down a tough challenge to Intel's dominance of the chip upgrade business by releasing a £199 mid-life kicker for Pentium systems.
The Evergreen 686 upgrades 75, 90 and 100MHz Pentiums to Cyrix's 6x86 P-166+ and upgrades the system BIOS, giving performance close to a brand new 166MHz Pentium, the firm claims. The product works on Intel-manufactured motherboards; specific details of which systems can be upgraded are available from the firm's Web site.
"Accountants tend to write machines off after about four years, but now, after about 18 months, performance has gone down to the minimum needed so the concept of the chip upgrade has become more attractive," said Spencer Eccleston, sales and marketing director for the eight-year-old firm.
Evergreen can be contacted by telephone on 01793-524700.