The future is looking bright ....Quote:
Semiconductor giant Intel is luring PC gamers with a special processor called the Pentium 4 with HyperThreading Technology, Extreme Edition. The announcement was made at the Intel Developer Forum. Company executives say the new chip will begin shipping to PC vendors in 30 to 60 days, they didn't divulge pricing however.
The CPU will include a 2MB Level 3 cache, which should help boost its performance in demanding applications such as graphics-heavy games. Today's Pentium 4 processors include a 512KB L2 cache, but no L3 cache (in fact, none of Intel's desktop processors include an L3 cache). At launch the processor will run at 3.2 GHz, the same speed as Intel's current top-end Pentium 4.
The new chip will work with existing Pentium 4 motherboards, says Louis Burns, vice president and general manager of the desktop platforms group at Intel. Burns made the chip announcement during his keynote here Tuesday.The new processor is aimed specifically at users who demand the best performance available, he says. "We're really targeting gamers. The performance boost is awesome."That huge L3 cache should indeed improve performance, says Kevin Krewell, analyst and general manager at MicroDesign Resources. In the right system, with the right applications, you can probably expect a boost of up to 15 or 20 percent over today's 3.2GHz P4 systems, he says.
