Intel Processors
Intel's desktop processors to be launched in Q1 2004 are all public knowledge by now, most to be launched in a couple of days on the 2nd of February. Prescott is the focus, built using Intel's recently perfected 90nm process and increasing cache sizes to 16KB L1, 16Kµop entry trace cache and 1MB of L2 cache memory (from 8KB, 12Kµops, 512KB on Northwood).SSE3 (previously known as PNI or Prescott New Instructions) brings new multimedia and HyperThreading instruction enhancements to the Netburst core. Most of SSE3 focusses on extending the capabilities of SSE2 with instructions that developers have yearned for. They include single instruction addition of all 32-bit components in a 128-bit SSE register, operations on complex numbers, an instruction to assist with data streaming and two new instructions to help HyperThreading.
The CPU also has enhancements to the data prefetcher, to offset a 60% increase in its length, from 20 stages to 32 (unconfirmed). There's some debate as to whether that includes changes to the instruction decode part of the pipeline and the tweaks to the trace cache (which include increasing its size). We'll soon see I guess, although with no real help from Intel.
Q1 shipping speeds for Prescott will stop at 3.4GHz, everything over that is a LGA775 part, destined for use in motherboards released in April, just outside the Q1 cutoff point. Of course that means Socket 478 for initial CPUs.
An Extreme Edition processor for LGA775 will appear, but based on Gallatin 2M technology, not Prescott (and again, outside of our Q1 window).
Along with the Prescott launch, a 3.4GHz Northwood and 3.4GHz Extreme Edition, both for Socket 478 of course, will appear on the 2nd February. The 3.4GHz Northwood is the last of the Socket 478 Northwoods, marking the end of that Netburst implementation. The 3.4GHz Extreme Edition will be the highest performance Socket 478 processor ever released and definitely the most expensive. 3.4GHz Northwood is faster than 3.4GHz Prescott for the majority of tasks, marking it out as the real-world Socket 478 performance champion in Q1.
Dothan, Pentium-M and Mobile Pentium 4
While Dothan, Intel's 90nm version of the current Pentium-M (Banias), starting at 2GHz and featuring 2MB L2 cache memory and 533MHz front side bus, was scheduled to appear in Q1 2004, it's now a Q2 CPU. Intel's mobile (Centrino branded) Pentium-M processor flagship for Q1 will stop at 1.7GHz.Mobile Pentium 4 will get a quiet launch of a 3.2GHz part, to be found in the desktop replacement end of the laptop market. With mPGA478 hanging around as the socket format for the Mobile Pentium 4 and Prescott based P4-M cores not arriving until Q2, the mobile sector stays quiet for Intel in Q1. Dothan will use the µFCBGA479 socket type, like Banias.
Summary
So basically, Prescott up to 3.4GHz, a 3.4GHz Northwood, a new Gallatin-2M based Extreme Edition at 3.4GHz and a P4-M at 3.2GHz. That's your lot (including the weird 2.8GHz Prescott on a 533MHz front side bus and no HT, for those last i845x implementations that are still hanging around and need a new CPU).I'll leave the gum flapping about Itanium 2, Canterwood-ES, Xeon revisions and various other Q1 enterprise-level entrants to other sites, other than to say that the Gallatin-4M version of Xeon, debuting at 3GHz with 4MB of L3, is launched on the 29th February.
