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Intel Pentium 4 Technology

Product Description
The Intel® Pentium® 4 processor, Intel's most advanced, most powerful processor for desktop PCs and entry-level workstations, is based on Intel® NetBurst(tm) microarchitecture. The Pentium 4 processor is designed to deliver performance across applications and usages where end-users can truly appreciate and experience the performance. These applications include Internet audio and streaming video, image processing, video content creation, speech, 3D, CAD, games, multimedia, and multi-tasking user environments. The Pentium 4 processor delivers this world-class performance for consumer enthusiasts and business professional desktop PC users as well as for entry-level workstation users.

1) Hyper-Threading Technology requires a computer system with an Intel® Pentium® 4 processor at 3.06 GHz or higher, a chipset and BIOS that utilize this technology, and an operating system that includes optimizations for this technology. Performance will vary depending on the specific hardware and software you use. See http://www.intel.com/homepage/land/hyperthreading_more.htm for information.

Product Performance
The Pentium 4 processor delivers the next generation of performance where end-users can experience and appreciate the performance most. For the spectrum of processor performance, please visit the Intel® Processor Performance Web Site at http://www.intel.com/performance/.

Product Highlights

The Pentium 4 processor is available at speeds ranging from 1.80A GHz to 3.06 GHz.
The 3.06GHz Pentium 4 processor supports Hyper-Threading Technology1
533-MHz system bus available with speeds at 2.26 2.40B, 2.53, 2.66, 2.80 and 3.06 GHz. 400-MHz system bus available with speeds at 1.80A, 2A, 2.20, 2.40, 2.50 and 2.60 GHz.
512-KB L2 Advanced Transfer Cache available with speeds from 1.80A GHz to 3.06 GHz.
The Pentium 4 processor is available in the mPGA-478 form factor.
Featuring the Intel NetBurst microarchitecture
Pentium 4 processor supported by the Intel® 850 and Intel® 845 chipset families
Pentium 4 processor supporting Hyper-Threading Technology supported by the Intel® 850E, 845GE, 845PE, 845GV, 845G*, and 845E chipsets
Compatible with existing Intel® Architecture-based software
Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2) Instructions
Intel® MMX(tm) media enhancement technology
Integrated caches include 12-K micro-op trace cache and 8-KB L1 data cache in addition to L2 cache memory.
Support for uni-processor designs
Based upon Intel's leading 0.13 micron manufacturing process technologies
* Note: The Intel® 845G chipset A-stepping does not support Hyper-Threading Technology

1) Hyper-Threading Technology requires a computer system with an Intel® Pentium® 4 processor at 3.06 GHz or higher, a chipset and BIOS that utilize this technology, and an operating system that includes optimizations for this technology. Performance will vary depending on the specific hardware and software you use. See http://www.intel.com/homepage/land/hyperthreading_more.htm for information.
Intel's Most Advanced, Most Powerful Processor for Desktop PCs and Entry Level Workstations
The Pentium 4 processor at 1.80A, 2A, 2.20, 2.26, 2.40, 2.40B, 2.50, 2.53, 2.60, 2.66, 2.80 and 3.06 GHz is designed for desktop PCs, as well as for entry-level workstations. The processor is binary-compatible with previous generation Intel Architecture processors.

Intel® NetBurst(tm) Microarchitecture
Intel NetBurst microarchitecture delivers a number of innovative features including Hyper-Threading Technology, hyper-pipelined technology, 533-MHz or 400-MHz system bus, Execution Trace Cache, and Rapid Execution Engine, as well as a number of enhanced features such as Advanced Transfer Cache, Advanced Dynamic Execution, enhanced floating-point and multimedia unit, and Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2). Many of these innovations and advances were made possible with improvements in processor technology, process technology, and circuit design and could not previously be implemented in high-volume, manufacturable solutions. The features and resulting benefits of the microarchitecture are defined below.

Hyper-Threading Technology1
Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology) is ground breaking technology from Intel that changes the landscape of processor design by going beyond GHz to improve processor performance. It allows software programs to "see" two processors and work more efficiently. This new technology enables the processor to execute two series, or threads, of instructions at the same time, thereby improving performance and system responsiveness. The Pentium 4 processor supporting Hyper-Threading Technology1 is specially designed to deliver immediate increases on performance and system responsiveness with existing applications in multitasking environments (i.e. where two or more things are running at the same time) and with many stand-alone applications today. Furthermore, the Pentium 4 processor supporting HT Technology provides performance headroom for the future.

1) Hyper-Threading Technology requires a computer system with an Intel® Pentium® 4 processor at 3.06 GHz or higher, a chipset and BIOS that utilize this technology, and an operating system that includes optimizations for this technology. Performance will vary depending on the specific hardware and software you use. See http://www.intel.com/homepage/land/hyperthreading_more.htm for information.

Hyper-Pipelined Technology
The hyper-pipelined technology of the Intel NetBurst microarchitecture doubles the pipeline depth compared to the P6 microarchitecture used on today's Intel® Pentium® III processors. One of the key pipelines, the branch prediction / recovery pipeline, is implemented in 20 stages in the Intel NetBurst microarchitecture, compared to 10 stages in the P6 microarchitecture. This technology significantly increases the performance, frequency, and scalability of the processor.

533-MHz or 400-MHz System Bus
The Pentium 4 processor's 533-MHz system bus supports Intel's highest performance desktop processor by delivering 4.2 GB of data-per-second into and out of the processor. This is accomplished through a physical signaling scheme of quad pumping the data transfers over a 133-MHz clocked system bus and a buffering scheme allowing for sustained 533-MHz data transfers. The Pentium 4 processor's 400-MHz system bus supports Intel's performance desktop processor by delivering 3.2 GB of data-per-second into and out of the processor. This is accomplished through a physical signaling scheme of quad pumping the data transfers over a 100-MHz clocked system bus and a buffering scheme allowing for sustained 400-MHz data transfers. This compares to 1.06 GB/s delivered on the Pentium III processor's 133-MHz system bus.

Level 1 Execution Trace Cache
In addition to the 8-KB data cache, the Pentium 4 processor includes an Execution Trace Cache that stores up to 12-K decoded micro-ops in the order of program execution. This increases performance by removing the decoder from the main execution loop and makes more efficient usage of the cache storage space since instructions that are branched around are not stored. The result is a means to deliver a high volume of instructions to the processor's execution units and a reduction in the overall time required to recover from branches that have been mis-predicted.

Rapid Execution Engine
Two Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) on the Pentium 4 processor are clocked at twice the core processor frequency. This allows basic integer instructions such as Add, Subtract, Logical AND, Logical OR, etc. to execute in one-half a clock cycle. For example, the Rapid Execution Engine on a 3.06 GHz Pentium 4 processor runs at 6.12 GHz.

512-KB Level 2 Advanced Transfer Cache
512-KB L2 Advanced Transfer Cache (ATC) is available with speeds 1.80A, 2A, 2.20, 2.26, 2.40, 2.50, 2.53, 2.60, 2.66, 2.80 and 3.06 GHz. The Level 2 ATC delivers a much higher data throughput channel between the Level 2 cache and the processor core. The Advanced Transfer Cache consists of a 256-bit (32-byte) interface that transfers data on each core clock. As a result, the Pentium 4 processor at 3.06 GHz can deliver a data transfer rate of 98 GB/s. This compares to a transfer rate of 16 GB/s on the Pentium III processor at 1 GHz. Features of the ATC include:

Non-Blocking, full speed, on-die level 2 cache
8-way set associativity
256-bit data bus to the level 2 cache
Data clocked into and out of the cache every clock cycle
Advanced Dynamic Execution
The Advance Dynamic Execution engine is a very deep, out-of-order speculative execution engine that keeps the execution units executing instructions. The Pentium 4 processor can also view 126 instructions in flight and handle up to 48 loads and 24 stores in the pipeline. It also includes an enhanced branch prediction algorithm that has the net effect of reducing the number of branch mis-predictions by about 33% over the P6 generation processor's branch prediction capability. It does this by implementing a 4-KB branch target buffer that stores more detail on the history of past branches, as well as by implementing a more advanced branch prediction algorithm.

Enhanced Floating-Point and Multimedia Unit
The Pentium 4 processor expands the floating-point registers to a full 128-bit and adds an additional register for data movement which improves performance on both floating-point and multimedia applications.

Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2) Instructions
With the introduction of SSE2, the Intel NetBurst microarchitecture now extends the SIMD capabilities that MMX technology and SSE technology delivered by adding 144 instructions. These instructions include 128-bit SIMD integer arithmetic and 128-bit SIMD double-precision floating-point operations. These instructions reduce the overall number of instructions required to execute a particular program task and as a result can contribute to an overall performance increase. They accelerate a broad range of applications, including video, speech, and image, photo processing, encryption, financial, engineering and scientific applications.

Data Prefetch Logic
Functionality that anticipates the data needed by an application and pre-loads it into the Advanced Transfer Cache, further increasing processor and application performance.

Features Used for Testing and Performance / Thermal Monitoring

Built-in Self Test (BIST) provides single stuck-at fault coverage of the microcode and large logic arrays, as well as testing of the instruction cache, data cache, Translation Lookaside Buffers (TLBs), and ROMs.
IEEE 1149.1 Standard Test Access Port and Boundary Scan mechanism enables testing of the Pentium 4 processor and system connections through a standard interface.
Internal performance counters for performance monitoring and event counting.
Includes a Thermal Monitor feature that allows motherboards to be cost effectively designed to expected application power usages rather than theoretical maximums.

HyperThreading Technology

A PC based on the Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology† consists of an Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 3.06 GHz and other components that enable Hyper-Threading Technology. This groundbreaking technology from Intel enables the processor to execute two threads (a part of a program) in parallel. So your software can run more efficiently and you can multitask more effectively than ever before.
Hyper-Threading Technology also improves processor performance and responsiveness, giving you the power to do more tasks on your PC at once‡ such as playing a game while encoding digital music or editing digital video while encoding digital music.
By utilizing the multitasking features of Microsoft Windows XP*, a Pentium 4 processor with HT Technology-based PC can enhance content creation. When editing digital pictures or home movies, it can manage more filters, transitions, special effects, and media types at once, making the experience easier and more enjoyable.

You can also turn your PC into a recording studio by simultaneously, recording, mixing and copying original instrumental analog input, which can be saved in CD, DVD or MP3 audio formats faster than ever before.

Finally, PCs based on the Pentium 4 Processor with HT Technology have the performance headroom to handle today's most demanding programs and emerging software applications well into the future. To ensure your system is enabled with Hyper-Threading Technology, look for the Intel Pentium 4 Processor with HT Technology logo.

See a demo on the benefits of a Pentium 4 Processor with HT Technology system, learn more about the development of Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology or click on the links to the right for detailed product information.

†Look for systems with the Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology logo which your system vendor has verified utilizes Hyper-Threading Technology. Performance will vary depending on the specific hardware and software you use. See www.intel.com/info/hyperthreading/ for more information.

‡As measured by MUSICMATCH Jukebox 7.20.0173* with Novalogic Comanche 4* concurrency testing and MAGIX MP3 Maker 2.39 Gold* with XMPEG 4.5* and DivX 5.02* concurrency testing.