Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Review
Posted by Steven Parker on 29 November 2001 - 20:07 · 6 comments & 58 views
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Full name: Steven Parker
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Full name: Steven Parker
Forum name: Neobond
Contact: via forum PM
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"If you are building a system with unlimited budget, then don't settle for anything other than Intel's fastest processor, the Pentium 4 2GHz. However, the main advantage of the Pentium 4 isn't speed, but features - SIMD in particular. Intel claims that this will not only improve multimedia and leisure performance, but will also improve streaming presentations. With more software and hardware drivers optimized for the Pentium 4 together with its price getting lower and lower, the Pentium 4 is gathering a lot of attention lately..."
Now, we're not sure what Gigawire actually is, but we note that it is an Apple technology - at least, the Mac maker applied for the name as a registered trademark on 5 September. The trademark application doesn't describes Gigawire per se but it's clear it's some kind of cabling technology. A faster version of Firewire seems likely, indeed we've already been told that the new machines will ship with IEEE 1394b, which we've heard described separately as "Gigabit 1394". The official 1394b spec., finalised last May, provides for 800Mbps data throughput, rising to 1.6Gbps and even 3.2Gbps with optical cabling.
Our source chooses not to - or (s)he can't - provide more detailed specifications for the Power Mac G5s and their component technologies. Previous reports from the source have claimed the frontside bus is 400MHz and the chip contains 512KB of on-die L2 cache.
Apple may not be the only customer: our source claims Cisco has expressed an interest too. Certainly Cisco has already committed itself to basing future router products on the PowerPC 7450 - aka G4 - so there's no reason why it won't be keen on the G4's successor. But that's a long way from a commitment to buy the new chip.
Source is The Register