A Brief Introduction Of Both Cores (Continued)

Based on the very scalable NetBurst architecture, the Pentium 4 has had a roller-coaster ride since the early Willamette core. When it was launched well over 3 years ago, many were disappointed with its relatively weak performance. But the picture changed substantially right after Intel made the transition to the Northwood core.

Today's Pentium 4 is a speedy monster that has already passed the 3GHz barriers. Its top model runs at a scorching 3.2 GHz, putting an incredible 1GHz clock speed distance between itself and AMD's fastest chip, the Barton 3200+.

This 3GHz breakthrough is mainly due to its 20-stages pipelined core. If we refresh back to days of Intel's 10-stages pipelined Tualatin core, manufactured using the same 0.13 micron process, we will remember that it could only reach about 1.3GHz.

The Intel Pentium 4C series is based on the successful 0.13 micron Northwood core. The Northwood core, as you will recall, came with 512KB of L2 cache that helped Intel regain the performance crown. The Pentium 4C ups the ante by debuting with a fast 800 MHz FSB and Hyper-Threading enabled throughout the entire line (2.4GHz, 2.6GHz, 2.8GHz, 3.0GHz and 3.2GHz Pentium 4C), unlike the previous "B-class" Northwood which only had Hyper-Threading enabled in the top model - 3.06B.

Apart from that, the rest remain untouched. That means there are no other differences between the "B-class" and the "C-class" Pentium 4 processors. The Pentium 4C will be replaced by the 0.09 micron Prescott which is scheduled to be released by Intel at the end of this year.

Now, let's check out the benchmark scores!