HyperThreading in desktops soon. - Prescott 3.20GHz appears in Intel roadmaps

The Register ^ | Tuesday 23 July 2002, 10:57 | Mike Magee:

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Desktop Roadmaps 1066 validation, price cuts, Springdale, and more

By Mike Magee: Tuesday 23 July 2002, 10:57

THE LATEST INTEL ROADMAPS show the Prescott 90 nanometer processor appearing in the second half of 2003.

Prescott will be introduced at 3.20GHz in the second half of next year.

And Intel will introduce hyperthreading in desktop CPUs at speeds of 3.06GHz and bove. While Intel will also introduce a 3.20GHz Pentium 4 in Q2 of next year.

As we said earlier, Intel will introduce its Pentium 4 2.80GHz processor this quarter – it will cost $508 at launch, the 2.6/2.66 Pentium 4s will cost $401, and the 2.53GHz/2.5GHz processors at $243.

In early September, the 2.4GHz/533 Pentium 4 will cost $193, the 2.26/2.2GHz part $193, the 2GHz chip $163, the 1.9GHz chip $163, the 1.8GHz Pentium 4 will then be $143.

Intel said the October 27th move has been pulled in to September 1st, knocking the October 27th price move for six – and the entry level price for Pentium 4s will be only $143.

And Intel will do far better than just release a 3GHz P4 in the fourth quarter of this year – it will introduce the 3.06GHz then – with hyperthreading.

It will release a 2GHz Celeron in Q3, and has added 2.20GHz and 2.10GHz roadmaps to the model.

Rather disappointingly, the Celerons at 2GHz, 2.10GHz and 2.20GHz will still only have 128K of cache, but they will be produced on 130 nanometers (.13µ).

PC1066 will, at last, be validated for the 850E, but that won't be until the fourth quarter. It will also add the 845GV to its chipset roadmap in Q4 – this will support 533MHz front side buses and all the features of the 845GL, but will have integrated graphics only and no AGP port, and be pin compatible with the 845G.

As for Springdale – it will release that in two versions – one, Springdale G, with integrated graphics, and the other Springdale-P, without integrated graphics.

Springdale has been dragged screaming into Q2 of 2003 – it originally was supposed to be offered in the second half of next year. µ

See Also
Microprocessor channel Complete Intel and other roadmaps

Intel's Dohan is the 90 nanometer successor to Banias
Complete INQUIRER Intel roadmap coverage 2001 and 2002

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This is from ZDNET ---By Stephen Shankland

Special to ZDNet News

February 6, 2002, 8:00 AM PT

_____________________________________

____________________________________

Hardware

'Hyperthreading' boosts Intel chips

By Stephen Shankland Special to ZDNet News February 6, 2002, 8:00 AM PT

Intel's "hyper-threading" technology for boosting chip performance will debut soon with its first server versions of the Pentium 4 chip, the chipmaker said Wednesday.

Hyper-threading makes a single CPU act in some ways like two chips, but because there's still only one patch of high-speed cache memory and one connection to the rest of the computer, performance isn't the same as with a true dual-processor server.

Hyper-threading will appear later this quarter on two models of Intel's Xeon chip, a close relative of the Pentium 4 that has various improvements geared for high-end networked server computers. The first Xeon, for lower-end systems, is code-named Prestonia and works in two-processor servers; the second, code-named Foster MP, is for more powerful multiprocessor models, said Shannon Poulin, marketing manager for Intel's enterprise systems.

The chips will debut at the end of March, said Insight 64 analyst Nathan Brookwood, though they're already shipping for workstations and cost $615 for the 2.2GHz model in batches of 1,000.

The Xeon chips will be used in several new high-end Intel servers, including Egenera's BladeFrame, IBM's 16-processor Summit systems and Unisys' 32-processor ES7000 models.

Hyper-threading "is never as good as having an actual dual-processor system," and it's not even generally enabled in workstations, Brookwood said. But Intel hasn't overpromised the technology. "To Intel's credit, they tried very hard when they launched the capability to make it clear it wasn't the same as two processors."

Hyper-threading is one of the major differentiators between the Xeon and Pentium lines, though the Pentium 4 chip has most of the hyper-threading circuitry included but not enabled. It's also a feature intended to keep Advanced Micro Devices from making further inroads into the server market and to keep the pressure on Sun Microsystems for lower-end servers.

In the Pentium III generation, Xeons and Pentiums were less distinct and, indeed, the ordinary Pentium III continues to be popular in many lower-end server products.

Intel also announced an early access program to help software companies take advantage of the Xeon chips, said Melissa Laird, director of services and support for Intel's software and solutions group.

Under the program, customers can try out Xeon systems over the Internet and piggyback on Intel marketing efforts. They also can use Intel programming tools that take advantage of hyper-threading and the 144 new " NetBurst" instructions available to control Pentium 4 chips.

The two Xeons debuting in March come from different manufacturing processes. The lower-end Prestonia models are built with a more modern 130-nanometer (0.13 micron) process, which means smaller chip features and faster circuitry than the 180-nanometer process used to build the higher-end Foster MP models. Smaller process sizes enable chips to be built more cheaply and let more cache memory be squeezed on board.

Intel had planned a two-processor version of Foster for servers, but canceled it in 2001 because server customers prefer to avoid frequent changes in chip designs and the resulting system-testing headaches.

A 130-nanometer multiprocessor Xeon code-named Gallatin is slated for release in late 2002 or early 2003, Poulin said.

The Pentium III Xeon models will be phased out at the end of 2002, he added.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Information in post #2 may relate more to servers. I posted the info because it gave an explanation of Hyperthreading .

It is very interesting to see the activities Intel is taking in anticipation of the upcoming release of AMD's new K8 series with the Hammer 64 bit architecture!

See these articles on that:

AMD fielding 64 bits for PCs (The Hammer challenges Itanium )

[ [AMD vs. Intel] Why the Buzz on Hammer Just Won't Quit

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

To find all articles tagged or indexed using tech_index

Click here: tech_index

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ping!

[Glenn]

Zoom Zoom Zoom.

[Dick Vomer]

Uhhhhhhh.... hmmmmmmmmm.... ahhhhhhhh...... hyper treading... is that like when you are really afraid of drowning ..... 2.46 Ghz-2.88ghz widget wangle dangle oh nevermind.... if it's the fastest, then I want to play Doom on it.

[supercat]

Hyperthreading sounds like an idea I had about eight years ago: design a pipelined processor in which all data paths have an even number of stages, and arrange things so that the contents of the "even-numbered" stages and the contents of the "odd-numbered" stages represent two distinct execution threads. This would require doubling up registers, but might otherwise not be too difficult.

[monkeyshine]

Hyperthreading is having 10 or more separate FR thread windows open at the same time.