2.8GHz Prescott finally available

RETAILERS IN THE UK, Austria and Bosnia have received stocks of Prescott 2.8 CPUs we learn, and we guess the chip is heading for other European territories too. But it seems that this is the only Prescott you will be able to get your hands on for the next few weeks.

Although Intel launched 3.0 and 3.2 Prescott CPUs in February and a 3.4 at CeBIT, you will still struggle to get your hands in these hot, 1MB, 90 nm-processed CPUs.

They don't perform as well as Northwoods and, at the same time, dissipate even more than 103W. We understand that the new 3.4 dissipates close to 125W and, believe me, that is not an easy chip to chill out.

We had the opportunity over the weekend to play with a Shuttle XPC and 3.2 GHz Prescott -- the only one that Intel sent us weeks after launch. We found that this baby works at around 70 Celsius.

PCI Express, DDR2 and Socket T 775 are all expected to tip up in Taiwan in June. But it's still unclear when will we see any of the faster Prescotts in retail. It certainly does not look like that you will get them in shops soon.

Intel told us recently that it always takes four to six weeks for a new CPU to get into channel and that this is the reason for the paucity of Prescott. But it's now eight weeks since the 3.2 Prescott was introduced and it is still not here.

Let's just say things are getting hot at Intel, but the upcoming Computex in Taiwan would be the right time for the chipmaker to start attacking the market one more time, we suggest. µ