Pentium 4 3.20GHz to bring massive Intel desktop attack

That would be an absurdly cynical point of view. Intel and AMD are not in the business of bolstering their businesses at the expense of consumers. They are there to foster shareholder value. And if the speed steps of the processors seem to match each other in an uncanny, almost spooky way, well, that's because they're in such bitter competition with each other that they have to watch each other step-for-step. Plus these days AMD uses the PR+ rating while Chipzilla continues to foster Megahurts Madness -- except for its Centrino Pentium M chips, of course.

But if you're a consumer, you had better be very careful which step you take, because as we said at the beginning of this year, buying a desktop PC may be trickier than ever, especially given the FUDzilla of front side buses, hyperthreading, speedsteps, lack of speedsteps, chipsets and all the rest.

The next desktop Pentium 4 frequency jump, as we revealed here some time back, will be the 3.20GHz Pentium 4, complete with hyperthreading, 512K of level two cache, an 800MHz front side bus and built on .13µ technology.

This is being launched to coincide with the introduction of 2.40GHz, 2.60GHz, and 2.80GHz Pentium 4s which have similar characteristics - all part of Intel's push that will also see the launch of the Springdale family of chipsets.

We have no inside® knowledge about any advertising campaign Her Indoors might be introducing to show the benefits of hypethreading for these 2.4GHz and above processors, but we believe that La will spend a fair amount of time convincing us that a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 with HT is much better than one without. Whether it's as good as a 2.60GHz Pentium 4 without HT is a different question.

Current plans are for Intel to keep the 3.20GHz Pentium 4 going into quarter three as well. The next speed step after that is the 3.40GHz Pentium 4 that uses Intel's 90 nanometer "Prescott" technology, but still relying on the up-and-coming Springdale motherboards - the Grantsdale chipset arrives to sample in Q4 of this year, but that's a different game altogether for Q2 of 2004 on the desktop.

In fact, what with the introduction of the fresh family of "Portability Pentium 4s" for "transportables" which we wrote about yesterday, you'd be forgiven for thinking the Pentium 4 line is getting a little bit complicated.

That would be an absurdly cynical point of view to take. These processors are intended for different marketplaces and segments and promote shareholder value.

The last roadmaps we saw at the Porcupine showed that Intel has the hyperthreading 2.8GHz at $278, 2.6GHz at $218, and 2.4GHz/$178 Pentium 4s out on May 11th, and there's certainly enough Springdale motherboards out there to take them.

The non hyperthreading versions of these processors cost $262, $193 and $163 respectively, so make sure if you're buying a desktop you buy the right thing.

The 3.20GHz Pentium 4 with all due bells and whistles will cost nearly $640 when it's launched.

This chart might help you see what you're going to have look out for, as Intel phases out the 400MHz front side bus for all but its cut-down Celeron range of chips.

You might wonder to yourself. Ah, those Portability Desktop Pentium 4s look like they might be just the job for a cut down less heat system, even though they're using that useless old 533MHz system bus?

Well, you're right. But unless some smart folk decide to build them into a desktop come Q3 of this year, when they become available, you're just going to have to buy them in a notebook. µ

See Also
Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processors revealed