Pentium 4 chips to get 800MHz system buses, while Prescott delayed

WE'VE KNOWN FOR some time that the Springdale-G and Springdale-P chipsets might support 667MHz but now Intel has upped the ante by saying it will support Northwood Pentium 4s with an 800MHz front side bus.That changes all the rules of the game and is doubtless a reaction to 800MHz Hypertransport (HT) chips from AMD that will arrive next year.

That has emerged from the latest roadmaps we saw on a rare visit to the Porcupine over the weekend. The 667MHz front side bus for Northwood and Springdale is now dead, and will support DDR 400 memory, in a faster than expected move. Intel also now feels it can produce additional processor speeds for hyperthreading technology introduced last week.

But Prescott has now been shoved back until Q4 of next year. Earlier Intel plans had Prescott in the second half of 2003. While, of course, Q4 is in the second half of 2003, it's not quite the same thing, is it? Next year, the 400MHz system buses for Pentium 4s will completely disappear from the Intel roadmaps and sale pitches.

Q2 is an important time for Intel. It adds the "Canterwood" 800MHz FSB/DDR 400 chipset to its desktop roadmap which will then be its highest performing desktop chipset, supporting 800/533MHz FSBs, dual channel DDR400/333, and ECC memory, Serial ATA, and version 3.0 of AGP 8X.

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