Processors and Platforms
Besides the motherboards and video cards that we all know and love, we can’t have any of them without the processors that run them. Intel had a pretty big spotlight at the show while AMD didn’t have much in the way of things new to look at.
Intel
Intel’s biggest announcement that they were showing the press was a working Smithfield processor. That is a dual-core CPU based on the Pentium 4 architecture. It was running at 3.0 GHz (per core) and featured dual 1 MB caches on a LGA775 format.
That (above) is the system that was running the dual-core processor; and no, they wouldn’t let me open it up to take a gander. The chipset was probably a Glenwood or Lakeport prototype.
This is what Intel was using as a software demo: WMV9 high definition video being played back on the dual threads. Intel told us they expect to see dual cores in 70% of desktops by the end of 2006 and in 85% of servers by the end of 2006. If this turns out to be the case, it marks a very quick market acceptance of a new architecture change.
All of the systems that were running at the Intel booth showing off their various technologies were running the new Intel 600 series processors I was told. Those are the upcoming chips that take Prescott and add on additional features such as 2 MB of L2 cache, 64-bit and the Execute Disable bit.
Finally, Intel showed off a sample of their upcoming upgrade to the Centrino line, code named Alviso. This new chipset will add PCI Express support to the mobile market at last.
