First discussed at the Fall 2003 Intel Developer Forum, the Intel Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition supporting HT Technology provides gamers and power users with a premium computing experience. In addition, the processor helps deliver enhanced graphics -- a key factor for more realistic game play -- through faster frame rates and higher-level detail rendering.
"Designed with the gaming and enthusiast communities in mind, the new Intel Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition supporting HT Technology unleashes the performance needed to conquer the most demanding games and applications," said Bill Siu, vice president and general manager of Intel's Desktop Platforms Group. "We have added an on-die two-megabyte Level 3 cache, which delivers a more realistic gaming experience when combined with Intel HT Technology."
Extreme Performance
Built on Intel's 0.13-micron process technology, the Intel Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition features a 512-kilobyte Level 2 cache, a two-megabyte Level 3 cache and an 800 MHz system bus speed. This processor is compatible with the existing Intel® 865 and Intel® 875 chipset families and standard system memory. The two-megabyte Level 3 cache can preload a graphics frame buffer or a video frame before it is required by the processor, enabling higher throughput and faster frame rates when accessing memory and I/O devices. This results in more realistic game play and improved video editing performance. Increased CPU performance also enables software vendors to create sophisticated software physics engines, which allows realistic character movements, and artificial intelligence, allowing computer-controlled characters to be much more lifelike. The Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition at 3.20 GHz delivers a SPECint*_base2000 benchmark result of 1583 and a SPECfp*_base2000 result of 1474***.
Hyper-Threading Technology: Turbo-Charging PCs
HT Technology allows software to "see" two processors instead of one. Software applications can be written to have multiple pieces of code called "threads," and can take advantage of this technology. First introduced on server and workstations, HT Technology allows the desktop PC's processor to work on two separate threads at the same time, improving performance when two or more applications are run simultaneously. Multitasking workloads benefit immediately when run under operating systems such as Microsoft Windows* XP or certain Linux* software. To date, many video encoding and other CPU intensive applications are threaded and can realize up to a 25 percent performance boost on an Intel Pentium 4 processor with HT-based system***.
Pricing and Availability
Intel also is shipping boxed Intel Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition 3.20 GHz to Intel authorized distributors for system integrators worldwide.
In 1,000 unit quantities, the Pentium 4 processor at 3.2 GHz sells for $925.
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.