The second quarter of 2004 will probably bring more revolutions in the field of x86 PC platforms than the world witnessed from the year 2000 to 2003.

Firstly, we will see AGP gone and conventional PCI ready to be gone; secondly, we will be offered a brand-new type of memory, the DDR-II; thirdly, Intel microprocessors get a totally innovative LGA775 packaging; fourthly, there will be a fresh platform form-factor; finally, there will be innovative coolers for Prescott and Tejas CPUs, unseen graphics cards, fantastic audio cards and a lot of other exciting hardware around. What is very important, Intel will offer a top-to-bottom LGA775 CPU lineup in the second and the third quarters of 2004 rapidly transferring to more advanced technologies, such as DDR-II and PCI Express.

The first LGA775 processors and supporting Grantsdale-G and Grantsdale-P chipsets will debut in Q2 2003. The Pentium 4 with SSE3 technology chips made using 90nm fabrication process will be clocked at 2.80 GHz, 3.00GHz, 3.20GHz, 3.40GHz, 3.60GHz with 800MHz PSB, 1MB cache and will be priced at Intel’s general mainstream and high-end pricing. Moreover, in order to further popularize the LGA775 form-factor, Intel adds 3.80GHz chip with 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus in the high end and 2.80GHz CPU with 533MHz QPB in the mainstream sections. The latter CPU will probably become an interesting option for mainstream computers at $800-$999.

In addition, as expected, our sources indicated a bunch of Celeron processors with 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus as well as 256KB of cache made using 90nm technology in early and mid-2004.

Intel calls the next-generation Celeron chips as Prescott 256KB, but there is no information whether the cores will support SSE3 and the Hyper-Threading or not. The Prescott Celeron processors will be available at 2.80 and 3.06GHz speed-grades in mPGA478 in the very late Q1 or Q2 2004, and at 3.20GHz, 3.06GHz and 2.80GHz in LGA775 packaging in the Q3. Since there will be no significant core-speed improvement, I would suppose the 2.80GHz 90nm Celeron to cost roughly $100 in Q2, allowing Intel to form a family of LGA775 microprocessors from $100 to $637 in just one quarter.