INTEL IS LAUNCHING A BEVY of new chips today, including new speed grades of the current Pentium 4 and Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processors clocked at 3.4GHz. The biggest news, though, is the new processor core, code-named Prescott. Prescott isn't just a die shrink, though it is that. Prescott is also a major reworking of the Pentium 4's microarchitecture—major enough that I'm surprised Intel didn't opt to call this processor the Pentium 5. Prescott clock speeds will initially range from 2.8GHz to 3.4GHz. To keep Prescott-based P4s distinct from older "Northwood" cores, Intel is tacking an "E" on to the product names, so they'll be called the Pentium 4 2.8E or 3.2E. The product mix gets most confusing at 2.8GHz, where one could buy four different Pentium 4s: the 2.8GHz (a Northwood core with a 533MHz front-side bus), the 2.8C (Northwood again, but with an 800MHz bus), the 2.8A (Prescott with a 533MHz bus), or the 2.8E (Prescott with 800MHz bus). Clear as mud?



Link: TechReport