X-bit labs

Annual Hardware Overview: A Glance Back at the Year 2003 (page 2)

Category: Editorial

by Andy Yaschenko

[ 01/08/2004 | 11:51 PM ]

The advantages of the architecture are numerous: integrated memory controller, 1MB L2 cache, improved integer and floating-point units, SSE2 support. I don’t mention such a defining property as 64-bit memory addressing, since this feature is still unavailable for an ordinary user (I don’t count Linux users in). It is a very powerful 32-bit processor until Microsoft wakes up with its 64-bit version of Windows.

AMD’s processor was really much faster across a number of applications than the current Pentium 4, so Intel’s reaction was simply required. Intel’s move was quite a surprise: they released a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition on the Gallatin core (the core the Xeon MP is based on). Roughly, it is the same Northwood with minor changes, but equipped with 2MB on-die L3 cache working at the full core frequency. Well, it was a kind of compensation for the high memory operations speed the latest AMD product boasts.

Of course, there would be no need for the Pentium 4 XE, if everything were as it was supposed to be, with the Prescott materializing in Q3 2003. Intel had to act extempore, using the best x86 130nm core they had at their disposal. The future of the Pentium 4 XE is vague enough, but I doubt this impromptu is going to enjoy a good long life. At best, if the problems with the Prescott persist, we will see a higher-clocked Pentium 4 XE (like 3.4GHz instead of 3.2GHz), before the Grantsdale chipset family and the Socket-T Pentium Something (I guess it is still going to be “4”) come out in spring.

On the other hand, if Intel likes the sales volumes of the Pentium 4 XE, we may see this series continued as a Prescott with an enlarged cache.

If the Pentium 4 XE was the surprise of the year in the product field, the main surprise in technologies was Intel’s announced intention to jump from 193nm lithography to EUV, skipping over 157nm equipment and production processes. This news was a shock for the equipment makers as they had already invested heavily into their 157nm products. The whole industry was in an uproar as Intel has enough weight in the technological field.

Intel’s position is logical, although not quite obvious. EUV development always encounters various difficulties, so it is not at all certain that everything will work like a well-oiled engine when the technology is really called for. And they won’t have 157nm technological process as an intermediate variant. Still, I hope all is going to be well: Intel will solve all problems or agree to 157nm technology without much noise, just in case.

While it is more or less clear with Intel, the situation with AMD looks more like a mess. The last year was quite characteristic in this respect: the company got divorced from UMC, which had been chosen as a partner to develop the 65nm production process and to build a joint fab in Singapore. AMD took the problem apart and dealt with the splinters independently. In the technology field, the company doesn’t rely on itself anymore, having licensed 130nm and 90nm technologies from Motorola, and stopping by IBM for the 65nm one. That’s a nice choice, and the company is solid and respected, although NVIDIA and Xilinix have been complaining about IBM’s 90nm production lately. That’s a disturbing signal, on the other hand.