Intel Pentium 4 microprocessors were based on completely new
NetBurst micro-architecture, that differed significantly from
P6 micro-architecture used in Pentium
II/Pentium III microprocessor
families. One of key features of Pentium 4 processor was
Hyper-Pipelined Technology - 20-stage pipeline, that was two times
longer than in previous generation of Pentium processors. While longer
pipelines are less efficient than shorter ones, they allow the CPU to
reach higher frequencies, and thus increase CPU performance. To
improve efficiency of very deep pipeline the Pentium 4 processors
included many other features: Trace Execution Cache, Advanced Transfer
Cache, Enhanced Branch prediction, Quad Data Rate bus and
Hyper-Threading technology. When first released the Pentium 4
architecture included 144 new SIMD instructions called SSE2. Later
versions of Pentium 4 processors also included SSE3 instruction set and
full set of 64-bit instructions (EM64T).
Intel Pentium 4 microprocessor family consists of the following sub-families:
Early engineering sample of Pentium 4. This processor was manufactured in second half of May of 2000 - one month before Intel announced Pentium 4 brand name and six months before the Pentium 4 family was officially launched. The processor is not marked with specific speed, the part number specifies speed as 1.X GHz.
Next Pentium 4 core - Northwood - was a die shrink of Willamette core. Based on 0.13 micron technology, Northwood microprocessors had lower voltage, and, as a result, lower power consumption than Willamette CPUs. The size of level 2 (L2) cache in this core was increased to 512 KB, besides that there were no major changes in microprocessor microarchitecture. Bigger L2 cache gave Northwood processors 5% - 20% speed boost over Willamette processors. Front-side bus frequency in first Northwood microprocessors didn't change. Over time the bus frequency was increased to 533 MHz, and finally to 800 MHz.
Northwood microprocessors were manufactured in 478-pin micro FC-PGA package (shown on the picture).
Cedar Mill, the last single-core Pentium 4 core, was built on 0.065 micron technology. Micro-architecture of this core didn't change from previous Prescott core, therefore performance-wise they are as fast as Prescott CPUs. The only advantage of Cedar Mill processors over Prescott processors is their lower power consumption. For instance, Pentium 4 Cedar Mill 3.6 GHz has 30 Watt lower Thermal Design Power (TDP) than Pentium 4 Prescott 3.6 GHz.
Pentium 4 Cedar Mill microprocessors were manufactured only in 775-land FC-LGA (socket 775) package.
The first Pentium 4 family of mobile microprocessors was Pentium 4-M. All processors in this family had 0.13 micron Northwood core, 400 Mhz effective Front Side Bus (100 MHz quad-pumped bus) and 512 KB level 2 cache. Intel Pentium 4-M microprocessors had lower core voltage and lower thermal design power than desktop Northwood CPUs. Mobile Pentium 4-Ms also included speed-step technology and Deeper Sleep mode. The microprocessors were manufactured in 478-pin micro-PGA package without integrated heatsink. Mobile Pentium 4-M processor family was replaced by mobile Pentium 4 family.
Mobile Pentium 4 was the last generation of mobile microprocessors with NetBurst microarchitecure. The mobile microprocessors were based on two Intel Pentium 4 cores - Northwood and Prescott. The processors had either 512 KB (Northwood core) or 1 MB (Prescott core) level 2 cache, and 533 MHz Front side Bus. Some Northwood mobile CPUs and all Prescott processors included Hyper-Threading technology. Although these processors had the same power-saving features of Pentium 4-M microprocessors, power consumption of these CPUs was significantly higher than the one of Mobile Pentium 4-M processors. In fact, the power consumption of Prescott-based mobile Pentium 4 was so high, that it hardly could be considered a "mobile" processor.
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