New York - Intel broke a new speed barrier today with the introduction of a Pentium 4 3.06GHz processor.

Intel's previous fastest processor was rated at 2.8GHz, but in addition more speed the 3.06GHz version uses the company's Hyper-Threading technology that allows it to work on several computing applications at the same time. Intel claims this will give a 25 percent boost to performance. This technology is expected to be useful to consumers using several applications simultaneously.

The processor is being supported at launch by new PCs from Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Gateway and costs $637 when bought in 1,000 unit lots.