So, there is still room for the new faster CPUs to come out within this product family. In Q2 2005 Intel is going to announce Pentium 4 670 working at 3.8GHz.
However, the question about the ?fastest CPU?title is so far not in favor of Pentium 4 660, and not in favor of Pentium 4 570. There is one more CPU based on Prescott 2M core, which has just been announced today and which belongs to the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition family. This newcomer works at 3.73GHz clock rate and is intended to support 1066MHz bus frequency. Note that even though the new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz boasts most of the features present in the new Pentium 4 6XX processors, it doesn?t support EIST technology. The other two technologies, XD bit and EM64T, are fully supported.
And here is the info we get from the CPU-Z diagnostic utility about the new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz and Pentium 4 660 processors:
Intel Pentium 4 660
Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz
Summing up, I would like to offer you a table with all the formal characteristics of the newly announced Pentium 4 6XX and Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz processors. For a more illustrative comparison we are also offering you the specs for the Pentium 4 5XX side-by-side with those of the newcomers:
| | Pentium 4 5XX | Pentium 4 6XX | Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73 GHz |
Package | LGA775 | LGA775 | LGA775 |
Processor rating | 570, 560, 550, 540, 530, 520 | 660, 650, 640, 630 | None |
Clock frequencies | 2.8 ?3.8 GHz | 3.0 ?3.6 GHz | 3.73 GHz |
Bus frequency | 800 MHz | 800 MHz | 1066 MHz |
Core | Prescott | Prescott 2M | Prescott 2M |
Manufacturing technology | 90nm, strained silicon | 90nm, strained silicon | 90nm, strained silicon |
L1 data cache | 16 KB | 16 KB | 16 KB |
Trace cache | 12000 micro-ops | 12000 micro-ops | 12000 micro-ops |
L2 cache | 1024 KB | 2048 KB | 2048 KB |
EM64T | None | Yes | Yes |
XD-bit | Yes | Yes | Yes |
EIST | None | Yes | None |
Hyper-Threading technology | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SIMD-instructions support | SSE, SSE2, SSE3 | SSE, SSE2, SSE3 | SSE, SSE2, SSE3 |
Number of transistors | 125 mln | 169 mln | 169 mln |
Die size | 112 sq.mm | 135 sq.mm | 135 sq.mm |
As for the thermal characteristics of the new processors, I should say that their heat dissipation lies within the same range as that of the Pentium 4 5XX CPU family. It means that Pentium 4 6XX working at up to 3.4GHz frequencies fit into the 84W TDP, while the top models including the new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz feature 115W TDP.
This way the new CPUs can be freely used in the same mainboards as the previous generation of Pentium 4 LGA775 processors. The only requirement is the support of the new CPUs in the mainboard BIOS.
So, please meet the newcomers:
Pentium 4 570, Pentium 4 660, Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73 GHz
