A little over a month ago, we brought you a look at Intel’s latest Pentium 4 processor. The 2.40GHz part was the latest in the Northwood line, which is the second iteration of the Netburst architecture. The first iteration, known otherwise as Willamette, featured a 180nm die process, and a 256KB L2 cache, while Northwood added an additional 256KB of L2 cache, and is constructed on the smaller 130nm process.
Both processors, however, have featured the same 400MHz Front Side Bus, and have been paired with the 850 chipset and its dual channel RDRAM memory system for maximum performance. The additional L2 cache improved performance by about 5-10% across the board, however it has been clear from the very beginning that bandwidth is the name of the Pentium 4’s game. Clearly, if we’re to continue seeing improved performance from the Pentium 4, we need more memory and FSB bandwidth.
Today, we get part of that equation, as Intel is launching a slew of new products. We're pleased to announce the following products:
- Pentium 4 Processor at 2.53 GHz (533 MHz FSB)
- Pentium 4 Processor at 2.40 B GHz (533 MHz FSB)
- Pentium 4 Processor at 2.26 GHz (533 MHz FSB)
- 850E Chipset supporting 533 MHz FSB
- D850EMV and D850EMD Desktop Boards
Read on, as we take a look at the new processors and chipsets, and the Pentium 4's newly upgraded FSB.
