Just days after the Intel Pentium 4 processors 2.40GHz at 90nm process technology were discovered at Intel’s web-site, these least expensive Pentium 4 “Prescott” processors started to emerge on shelves of Asian stores.

The Intel Pentium 4 processor 2.40A has 1MB of secondary-level cache, 533MHz processor system bus and support for SSE, SSE2 and SSE3 technologies. The advantages of the chip over typical Intel Pentium 4 2.40B are not clear, as SSE3 technology does not boost performance tangibly now, while 1MB cache and other micro-architectural enhancements compensates deeper pipeline of the Pentium 4 E compared to ordinary Pentium 4 microprocessors. The Pentium 4 2.40A central processing unit does not support Hyper-Threading technologies.

According to report from Say25.com web-site, the new Pentium 4 2.40A microprocessors have 1.40V Vcore – in line with general core voltage for Intel’s 90nm processors. Given that Prescott’s highest possible official voltage is 1.525V, some sources believe that the 2.40A processors may be good overclockers.

Intel Pentium 4 2.40A CPUs are priced at $155 to $165 in Korea and from $140 to $155 in Japan.