There is a total mess with Prescott support by existing mainboards based on i865PE and i875P chipsets that are meant to be “Ensured ‘03 Platforms Are Prescott Ready”. Intel does not want to comment on certain claims about Prescott support and also does not want anybody else to comment.

An official from a well-known mainboard maker told us that mainboards from this company based on the latest Canterwood and Springdale chipsets will support Prescott processors easily unless Intel changes pin layout of the Prescott CPUs compared to the Pentium 4 CPUs. In fact, the person was sure that majority of mainboards found on the market are Prescott-ready in case the difference between Prescott and Pentium 4 lies in power and voltage standards.

That seemed to be a good news not only for those, who own mainboards from this maker, but also for end-users, who had purchased quality and expensive “Ensure ‘03 Platforms Are Prescott Ready” mainboards from other manufacturers who produce devices with some headroom for expansion and tweaking. But when we contacted this person and asked what he thought about a news-story with such claim to be posted on X-bit labs, he told us he needed to consult with Intel. Today he said we better not post anything on Prescott support by some very popular mainboards.

We reported some time ago that due to a mandatory voltage regulation spec change from VIN 1.0 to VIN 1.5, Prescott processors may not work on at least some of current platforms designed to support the chip initially. Nevertheless, we are now hearing that some mainboard makers claim Prescott support by current solutions. However, such claims are mostly unofficial and probably cannot be considered as a guarantee about Prescott support.

Everyone in the mainboards industry hopes that Intel will not change the pin layout of the forthcoming Socket 478 CPUs and at least some users of current platforms based on Springdale and Canterwood core-logic sets will be able to utilize the Prescott without changing the mainboard.

If Intel decides to change the layout of Prescott pins or take other special measures to limit Prescott support by currently available platforms, all mainboards available today will not be able to work with the chip despite of all additional features and capabilities mainboard makers implemented in their products. Certainly, that is why not a lot of companies want to declare the Prescott support officially...