The first Pentium III variant was the Katmai (80525) and was introduced on February 28, 1999.

The second version, codenamed Coppermine (80526), was released on October 25, 1999. There was also a version codenamed Coppermine T (80533), an intermediate step between Coppermine and Tualatin, with support for lower-voltage system.

The third revision, Tualatin (80530), was a trial for Intel's new 0.13 μm process. Tualatin-based Pentium IIIs were released during 2001 until early 2002.

Even after the release of the Pentium 4 in late 2000, the Pentium III continued to be produced with new models introduced until early 2003, and were discontinued in April 2004 for desktop units and May 2007 for mobile units.