Intel has been pushing for higher clock rates for ages now. While 4 and even 5 GHz is not entirely uncommon for those wishing to step outside Intel’s specifications and push the frequency as high as it can go, Intel has yet to allow their parts at that frequency in any supported fashion. That has recently changed with Intel’s Xeon line.
Tom’s Hardware noted from Intel’s spec sheet that Intel’s Xeon E3-1290 is clocked at 3.6Ghz with its Turbo Boost rating on single-threaded applications spiking to 4 GHz. Their original intention with their Netburst architecture from 2004 was to peak to ridiculously high frequencies but they quickly found their scalability ended below the 4 GHz line killing their plans for a 4 GHz SKU. With the Xeon architecture quite close to the higher-end Sandy Bridge parts it is possible that we might see 4 GHz in the desktop soon.
So, what about the AMD
So, what about the AMD processors that are clocked at 4.0 Ghz stock, and turbo to 4.4 Ghz, don’t they get a mention?
It was more of a historical
It was more of a historical thing than anything else. Intel was trying for a while (even at the expense of heat, power, and performance vs the AthlonXP/64 line) to break 4 GHz but kept failing to do it stably. Now they sort-of did (after they stopped caring about big GHz ratings on boxes).
Still says next to nothing about how the chips perform, but interesting none-the-less.