The Pentium 4: A Lot Of Noise Over Very Little
Source: Tom's Hardware – Keywords: intel, cpu, history
The Pentium 4: A Lot Of Noise Over Very Little
In November 2000, Intel announced its new processor, the Pentium 4. With a higher clock speed (at least 1,400 MHz), this processor had a major drawback in that its performance wasn’t as good as competing models on a per-clock basis. AMD’s Athlon (and even the Pentium III) performed better at the same frequency. Complicating matters, Intel tried to shift to Rambus’ RDRAM memory (the only memory at the time capable of meeting the requirements of the CPU’s FSB), but failed. Expensive and hot, the Pentium 4 nonetheless managed, with many modifications, to more or less stay in the competition for a few years (by adding L3 cache and technologies like Hyper-Threading).
| Code name | Willamette | Northwood | Prescott |
| Date released | 2000 | 2001 | 2004 |
| Architecture | 32 bits | 32 bits | 32 bits |
| Data bus | 64 bits | 64 bits | 64 bits |
| Address bus | 32 bits | 32 bits | 32 bits |
| Maximum memory | 4 GB | 4 GB | 4 GB |
| L1 cache | 8 KB + 12 Kµops | 8 KB + 12 Kµops | 16 KB + 12 Kµops |
| L2 cache | 256 KB | 512 KB | 1,024 KB |
| Clock frequency | 1.3-2 GHz | 1.8–3.4 GHz | 2.4–3.8 GHz |
| FSB | 400 MHz | 400, 533, 800 MHz | 533, 800 MHz |
| SIMD | MMX, SSE, SSE2 | MMX, SSE, SSE2 | MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3 |
| SMT/SMP | no | Hyper-Threading (certain versions) | Hyper-Threading |
| Fabrication process | 180 nm | 130 nm | 90 nm |
| Number of transistors | 42 million | 55 million | 125 million |
| Power consumption | 66-100 W | 54-137 W | 94-151 W |
| Voltage | 1.7 V | 1.55 V | 1.25–1.5 V |
| Die surface area | 217 mm² | 146 mm² | 112 mm² |
| Connector | Socket 423/Socket 478 | Socket 478 | Socket 478/LGA775 |
Mobile versions (with a variable multiplier), Celeron versions (with a smaller L2 cache), and Xeon versions (with an L3 cache) of the Pentium 4 were sold. Hyper-Threading and the L3 cache are two technologies that first appeared on servers and were then adapted to standard processors (though L3 cache was available only on the expensive EE models).
We should also mention the FSB, which was clocked at a fourth of the nominal clock frequency, using what is called Quad Data Rate (QDR) technology—a 400 MHz bus is actually 100 MHz QDR, 533 MHz is 133 MHz QDR, etc. Finally, 64-bit versions of the Pentium 4 appeared in 2005, which we’ll talk about later on.
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Wasn’t one of the key features of the Pentium Pro line of processors the increase in IRQs to 256 rather than the 16 of the previous generations?
In the days of virtual IRQs assigned by windows it's easy to forget the headache of trying to install multiple interface cards without running out of resources.
am I mistaken? or the Maximum memory figures are wrong? 4096MB or is it KB on 386, 486 and Pentium MMX class CPU's. and 64MB on P-II and so on.
Modern Intel CPU: P1-> P3 -> P4M -> C2D -> C2Q
Modern AMD CPU: P1(Intel) -> P3(Intel) -> K8 -> K10
Next gen CPU: Modified P1
The Pentium 1 & 3 are possibly the most widely base processor in modern computing. Even AMD's chips are based on them.
Hmm....
Interesting...AMD chips based on P3... EHEHEHEHHEHEHE
I think you need a...khhmmm...LIFE
cheers
Nice article that made me a little bit misty-eyed and nostalgic (being of the original 8086 generation)
Did a bit of a clear-out of my parts boxes not so long ago and found a couple of PPro's, a 486DX2/66, a 386SX and a 386DX. Threw them out but perhaps should have built a little shrine? ;p
Cheers.
There are some errors in the article, Pentium M Dothan had a 2.26GHz model which is not mentioned there, they had a VCore of 1.356V and a TDP of 27W, not 36W like stated here, also it's die size is 88mm2, not 87mm2, it also came as a socket 478 which was incompatible with the Pentium 4 socket 478 due to it's electrical differences.