Intel 925X and Socket 775 Platform: PCIe and DDR2

Intel 560 at 3.6 GHz and Intel 3.4EE

Intel shipped us a pair of processors with their Alderwood review sample.  The first is a Prescott-core 3.6 GHz processor they are calling the Intel 560.  The other is a Northwood-core Extreme Edition processor with 2 MB of L3 cache, just like the previous EE processors.  Obviously, they both come in the new 775-pin processor packaging. 

The Intel 560 starts Intel’s new campaign of processors by model number, not frequency.  You may recall many moons ago where gigahertz was all you ever heard from Intel and their marketing bunch.  That all changed when the Pentium-M processor became a smashing success in the market and its performance and power consumption were phenomenal.  However, Intel was left in a pinch when their Pentium-M 1.6 GHz was out pacing their Pentium 4 3.2 GHz in nearly all benchmarks, leaving confused customers buying based on frequency.  Of course, this was AMD’s thinking a while back when they released their first model numbering system in the Athlon XP processor.  Their drawback at the time, and still is today in my opinion, is that their numbering system (3400+, 3800+) tries to compare the processor speed to an imaginary processor that doesn’t exist.  More than once, we have seen processors of higher model numbers get outrun by those with lower model numbers — that is the curse of varying processor cores. 

Intel is choosing to follow the idea that AMD started with their Athlon FX line of processors. Instead of having the model numbers as a mythological comparison to some fantasy processor, model numbers are just that: numbers that vary depending on the features of the product. 

Think of these numbers as equivalent to comparing a BMW car.  The numbers are only useful in comparing products in the same series.  For BMW, the 330 is better than the 325.  For Intel, the 560 is better than the 550.  Processor numbers will increment based on all the processor features such as frequency, cache sizes, and FSB. The increments are not supposed to be proportional to any feature or performance gain. 

Other than the package change, the Intel 560 is the same Prescott core that we saw in the 478-pin format.  This one now runs at 3.6 GHz, a 200 MHz jump over their last iteration, now called the Intel 550.  The Intel 3.4EE 775 (the EE series will eventually take the 7xx series naming scheme) is the same as we have seen previous EE processors, just in the new package.

Power consumption is something that Intel’s Prescott line has had significant problems with, and it doesn’t look to be stopping here at this socket transition.  While I don’t have any exact numbers for you, in the specification sheets that I have here, there is notification of a TDP (thermal design power) for the Intel 550 and 560 of 115 watts. 

Let’s have a look at these new processors.

The top of the package is relatively the same, but on the bottom, you will notice that there aren’t any pins on the processors.  The pins are now located on the socket on the motherboard.  Many in the industry speculate that Intel did this because the majority of processors returned to Intel are done so because of damaged pins.  Removing them stops some of their headaches, but forces them upon the motherboard manufacturers — something they are not all happy about. 

It’s difficult to see in this picture, but the gold in this image are the 775 pins responsible for connecting the CPU to the motherboard.  They are shaped like little hooks and have a retention on them that gets pressed down when you install the processor. 

There has been discussion as well over the life-expectancy of these sockets.  I can only assure you that I changed the processor probably three dozen times so far, and haven’t had a problem yet.  But that doesn’t mean one does not exist.