Hey everyone! Since Intel just released a 3.2GHz P4 today, lots of the computing sites like Tom's hardware are also talking about the Prescott. I've been getting mixed stories about this upcoming chip. Some people say it's gonna be Pentium 5, and some say it'll just be another core of the P4, just like the Northwood and Willamette were/are. What do you guys think?
Also, will it be a 786, like the P4, or a 886?
Will it come with new instructions (maybe SSE3?)
Since it's a soc.478, just like my existing 2GHz P4, will I be able to easily upgrade in say, 2005, when 2GHz is obsolete. My mobo doesn't support HT, and PROBABLY doesn't support a 533FSB, only 400. (Does the 845D chipset support 533FSB?) Will my limited mobo affect this? Will the Prescott still run at 4GHz, only at a 400FSB speed?
Yup, and that's it.
Thanks

Looks like intel has their act together and is pricing accordingly. I don't know jack about the future but might as well take a cut at one question here.

"Will the Prescott still run at 4GHz, only at a 400FSB speed"

If you mean will a 4.0g prescott run on your 400fsb board, unless intel unlocks the multiplier (not something to hope for) then the best case is yes it will run, but only at 2.0ghz since it will be designed for at least 800mhz.

And by the time there is a 4.0g version we may be at 1000fsb or higher, depending on whether memory is up to the task. If you take a 3.0g p4 and run it at 533fsb then at 800fsb, you get a noticeable bump in performance, so you'd think a 4.0g p5 would be somewhat hamstrung by a measly 800mhz fsb.

I didn't see anything about an intel on-die memory controller, something that is in the press as part of the amd plan. That may be a bummer for overclocking fans as just as the igp version of the nforce2 northbridge severely affects fsb overclocking and the barton cache somewhat lowers overclocking vs a tbred, I wonder if an on-cpu-die memory controller is going to make stock cpus such a furnace that there is little room to oc. That would be a bummer. Hopefully someone is working on a discount vapochill.

As i hear it the prescott will be another pentium4. Im still hoping in Athlon 64 although the previews of the existing athlon 64s for it pretty much are crap just like the first athlons previews were(which may be a good sign, maybe amd will pull of another winner). I personally doubt the new pentiums will run on older motherbaords just because intel is bad at that stuff. Normally u gota upgrade both the mobo and the cpu for intel. The new opetrons have a fsb at the same speed as their core speed which is lowest 1.2ghz and the athlon 64 will be starting at a fsb of 800mhz as i hear it. My question about all this is to u think that a 2.6 ghz athlon 64 of PR rating 4000+ will be able to compete with a 4ghz pentium. athlon 64 at the PR rating of 4000+ will for sure be due by december so i dont think intels 4ghz cpus are far of anyway.

Thanks for explaining this.
I guess I can only hope intel'l let me run the thing on my mobo. Even though my 400MHz FSB and DDR 266 memory will be a HUGE bottleneck and very obsolete in 2005!