Intel his Pentium 4 E , the Prescott

Intel is moving from the current Northwood P4 and introducing Prescott P4. This is the processor changing size and cache - nothing more. The chipset is NOT changing; the only image impact expected is a ROM flash that is backwards compatible. Status of current Northwood P4 and Celeron configurations:

P4 2.6GHz SKUs will extend through July 2004

All other Northwood SKUs will EOL June 2004 (SKUs currently in channel / on lifecycle chart)

Celeron will continue to be Northwood processors - not moving to Prescott technology until later in Prescott cycle

Intel launches Prescott on February 2, 2004

Prescott will continue to be a P4 Processor

The change to the processor from the current Northwood P4 is the size (shrinking to .09 from .13) and the L2 cache increasing to 1MB from the current 512KB

The system board is NOT changing

Images will NOT be affected, ROM flash is required and is backwards compatible

Differentiating between Northwood P4 and Prescott P4

E = Prescott

Example:

2.8GHz = Northwood P4 2.8GHz (current product)

2.8E GHz = Prescott P4 2.8GHz

2.8E GHz HT = Prescott P4 2.8GHz HyperThread

Speeds will be from 2.8 - 3.4GHz, HT (2.8E GHz 533 FSB is the only non-HT in the Prescott line-up)

At launch the 2.8E GHz (non HT) will be at price parity with the current 2.6 GHz, HOWEVER, availability for mass transition will not be until late April or early May.