Intel Quietly Adds New Pentium 4 "Prescott" SKUs

by Anton Shilov
02/23/2004 | 01:59 AM

Intel Corporation has added a new Intel Pentium 4 processor at 90nm process technology into the lineup of offered devices. The new chip works at 2.40GHz, which is below minimal clock-speed range determined for processors with Prescott core.

According to Intel’s International Declarations of Conformity – a set of data about compliance of a hardware to certain relevant specifications and directions for this type of products – there is an Intel Pentium 4 processor marked BX80546PE2400E, among four 2.40GHz Pentium 4 SKUs listed in the DoC.

Based on the nomenclature used to mark Intel’s Pentium 4 processors, the following list of details may be composed, OverClockers.ru web-site notes:

• BX – boxed version;
• 80546 – 90nm process technology;
• PE – 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus;
• 2400 – CPU clock-speed;
• E – Prescott suffix.

Apparently, Intel is offering boxed Pentium 4 processors 2.40GHz with 533MHz processor system bus and 1MB of L2 cache produced using 90nm fabrication process and with no Hyper-Threading technology.

According to Intel’s initial plans, the lowest core-speed for “Prescott” Pentium 4 central processing units is 2.80GHz. There is an inexpensive version of the Pentium 4 processor 2.80GHz called 2.80A – a chip with 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus, 1MB of level-two cache and no Hyper-Threading technology enabled. The new Pentium 4 2.40GHz processor has nearly the same specifications as 2.80A, but lower core-speed.

There is currently no information about the new processor and the reasons why Intel added this it into the lineup. Given that the chip is to be sold in retail boxes, this is not a version of the product tailored for a customer’s requirements, but a processor made in quantities.

Some reports indicate yield issues with Pentium 4 “Prescott” processors and inability of a certain number of chips to work in officially specified 2.80GHz – 3.40GHz speed range. In case we suppose that there are yield issues with the Pentium 4 CPUs at 90nm technology process, then, the appearance of 2.40GHz model is quite logical, as Intel now can sell chips that do not fit into the original frequency envelope. On the other hand, Intel itself commented a number of times that it is more cost-efficient to make 90nm central processing units rather than 130nm devices. Therefore, the introduction of 2.40GHz processor with Prescott core may be an indicator of 90nm massive ramp.

Official Intel comments were not available at press time.