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| Tomorrow has Arrived...... Welcome to CALROG.COM! | Feb. '02 Headlines |
Intel and AMD Up-the-Ante With Faster CPUs By C. Rogers, 02.02 The post-Christmas season typically is a boon for PC enthusiasts. During this time, the top two CPU manufacturers begin new rounds of processor releases. With healthy competition still in kind, AMD and Intel have announced faster CPUs at the beginning of last month. Using the brand-spanking new Northwood core, Intel released a 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 to manufacturers. While its new core presently sports a 200 MHz lead over the older 2.0 GHz counterpart , there is more to this CPU than just a clock-speed increase. The die of the Northwood CPU is greatly reduced to a size of 146 mm˛, courtesy of a smaller 0.13 micron process. In retrospect, Willamette CPUs had a die-size of 217 mm˛. Smaller die-sizes shrink the size of transistors, decreasing heat dissipation. This also allows the Pentium 4 some headroom for future CPU releases, as higher clock speeds are inevitable. One other addition to the Northwood core is a larger secondary cache. Ever since the Coppermine Pentium III, Intel placed a 256 KB L2 cache on the CPU die. With times changing, a larger cache is necessary for more intensive applications. The Northwood P4 now comes with a 512 KB L2 cache, and increase performance system-wide. Meanwhile, AMD has released the Athlon XP 2000+. There are no new features with AMD's latest offering, other than a 67 MHz leap to a 1.67 GHz clock speed. While the Athlon XP does not have the ability to ramp higher clock-speeds like the Pentium 4, it does execute more instructions per clock cycle. In many cases, the Athlon XP is the fastest CPU in benchmarking. Being SSE-enabled since introduction, the Athlon XP has squeaked out a 3-5% performance in multimedia applications. The pricing for the latest AMD and Intel CPUs is as different as day and night. The street price for the 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 is $520, and the Athlon XP 2000+ is $263. To this very day, the Athlon XP is the best CPU for the dollar. |
DVD+RW vs. DVD-RW & DVD-RAM: Who Will Win? Security Pack Announced for Windows 2000 LinuxWorld Paris Reveals Strength in Business Market CALROG.COM 2000-2002 Headlines.Copyright Info listed here. Thank you for visiting CALROG.COM, where we report the latest technology for the public throughout a monthly schedule. |
