Intel Prescott 2.80 and 3.0GHz to Come

by Anton Shilov
08/13/2003 | 03:19 AM

Intel Corporation is going to take the same approach of expanding Prescott market share as it used with its Hyper-Threading enabled chips. The company reportedly is going to offer some more or less mainstream Prescott processors with a bit lower core-clock and, hopefully, power consumption in the first quarter next year. Additionally, the company will also launch Celeron processors and appropriate chipsets to popularize its Socket T (LGA775) and PCI Express platform.

As we already know, the Prescott processors will start this November at 3.40 and 3.20GHz core-clocks. Earlier it was expected that Intel launches just another Prescott chip at 3.60GHz in Q1 2004 and this will be the last and final Socket 478 processor. However, PC Watch Japanese web-site reports that Intel had also decided to release Prescott CPUs at 2.80 and 3.0GHz speeds in the first quarter next year. Such processors should have a bit lowered power consumption and may even work with FMB 1.0 mainboards based on i865PE/G or i875P chipsets, though, this is only an assumption.

In case the information about 2.80 and 3.00GHz Prescott chips is correct, this is a good news for all the end-users of “Ensure ’03 Platforms are Prescott Ready” mainboards that will not work with 3.40 or 3.60GHz Prescott CPUs made using 90nm.

Besides, the same web-site reports about “Grantsdale-GV” for the mainstream market and “Grantsdale-GL” designed for the value market chipsets that are set to come in the second quarter of 2004. Both core-logic sets will support LGA775 processors with 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus as well as PCI Express interconnection. The chipsets are intended for Celeron processors in Socket T form-factor that are to come in Q2 next year. The CPUs will be made using 90nm technology at speeds of 2.80 and 3.06GHz and will be available for both Socket 478 and Socket T interfaces initially.

At this point we do know the speeds of higher-end Socket T Prescott processors: 3.60 and 3.80GHz at the launch in the second quarter 2004. It seems that starting from the Q3 or Q2 next year we should expect Prescott chips at 3.40 and 3.20GHz for LGA775 as well.