Though clock speed is no longer a true measure of processor performance, it's hard to argue with a few hundred more MHz no matter which CPU architecture you'd consider.  Regardless, it's clear the industry as a whole, as well as the world's largest chip manufacturer, Intel, has now embarked on an effort to provide more computing power per clock cycle, focusing on IPC (Instructions Per Clock Cycles) metrics as better manifestations of overall performance.  As the PC and workstation marketplaces now look toward a future of dual-core processors, Intel continues a parallel effort of fleshing out its 6XX Sequence series of processors today with the introduction of the Pentium 4 670.

The Intel Pentium 4 670 processor is the result of a simple speed bump, one that takes the company's latest 2MB cache-infused Prescott core to 3.8GHz.  Historically we've seen plenty of headroom in the Prescott 2M core with much more manageable thermals, so it's no surprise that Intel has decided to add another high-end SKU to the mix.  In this showcase, we're focusing on strictly the performance characteristics that comprise the new 3.8GHz Pentium 4 670, so we'll keep the chatter to a minimum and cover some brief spec details before we move into our standard battery of tests.

Specifications: Intel Pentium 4 670 3.8GHz Intel's High-End Mainstream Performance CPU

With an 800MHz Quad Data Rate frontside bus and a 3.8GHz total clock cycle, the only thing that differentiates the Pentium 4 670, other than its performance, from the Pentium 4 660 is its 19X multiplier.  Other than that, the chip is identical in every way, from process technology to its core architecture and LGA775 packaging.  The nice thing about the Pentium 4 6XX Sequence processors are that they all come equipped with 2MB of full-speed L2 cache.  So although these are single-core CPUs that are only capable of multi-thread processing through Intel's "Hyper-Threading" technology, that core is beefed up with additional low latency on chip cache to assist in keeping its pipeline efficiently full.