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Last revised:
03/05/2000

Intel Pentium III Katmai/Coppermine Slot 1 for 440BX Performance Comparison
Intel Willamette: The Road to 1GHz

Update for 03/04/2000 - Due to intense competition from AMD, Intel will be launching a Pentium III/1GHz processor by Q2/2000. The CPU is still based on the Coppermine 0.18 micron core, and will be available in extremely limited quantities. Intel will ramp up production by Q3/2000. Intel is still targeting the Willamette for late Q3/2000 launch.

Intel and AMD is currently waging an all-out war to see who can produce the fastest desktop processor. The current winner is AMD with their Athlon 850MHz. Of course, Intel isn't far behind with their Pentium III/800 Coppermine processor. But all this is merely a prelude to the main event: who will be the first to reach 1GHz, or 1,000MHz?

AMD recently demonstrated an Athlon running at 1.1GHz. And a few days later, Intel came back and demonstrated their next generation Pentium III CPU running at a blistering 1.5GHz.

Intel Willamette The Willamette, the codename for the next generation Pentium III processor, will not be out until the second half of this year. Intel will have a new marketing name for this processor. Most likely, it will carry on the name "Pentium." For now, let's call it the Pentium IV (PIV) to avoid any confusion. Yes, the PIV will come in a socket form factor. Remember, Intel is trying to phase out all slot 1 processors by the end of this year. But the PIV will not be pin compatible with existing socket 370 motherboards. It will require a new motherboard with a new chipset, codename "Tehama."

The following list highlights a PIV system's main features. Of course, this may change when the processor arrives in the second half of 2000.

  • Launching at 1.3 or 1.4GHz speed
  • Larger L1 and L2 cache (possibly 1MB)
  • CPU/host bus running at 400MHz (quad buses @ 100MHz each)
  • SSE2 with 144 new instructions
  • To be used with Intel's "Tehama" chipset
  • ATA-100 or faster (IDE HDDs running at 100MB/sec)

    Initially, the PIV will be manufactured using Intel's 0.18 micron technology. Which is the current technology used to make Pentium III Coppermine processors. But expect a shrink down to 0.13 micron for the PIV. In layman's term, the smaller the micron size, the higher the clock speed and the less heat it will produce. It's a win-win situation for Intel.

    Figure 1: Intel Tehama chipset Another interesting aspect of the PIV is its 400MHz CPU/host bus. This does not actually mean the CPU bus is really running at a full 400MHz. It just means the Tehama chipset is able to run four 100MHz buses concurrently, which gives it an effective bus speed of 400MHz. Currently, the fastest CPU bus is 133MHz. Click here for more details regarding CPU bus and different Intel chipset and processors. Running at 400MHz will give the system three times the performance of the current 133MHz CPU bus. And just by coincidence, Rambus PC800 memory also runs at a maximum speed of 400MHz. Or maybe it's always been Intel's intention to pair Rambus memory with the Tehama chipset, instead of the 820.

    Figure 2: Intel Tehama chipset Perhaps this is why the current Intel 820 chipset with Rambus memory isn't much faster than the Intel 440BX chipset with PC100 SDRAM. Click here for performance comparison between SDRAM and Rambus memory. Figure 2 on the right shows the memory and CPU/host bus speed for the Intel 820 chipset. Even though Rambus memory is capable of running at 400MHz, the bottleneck is the CPU/host bus itself, which is limited to 133MHz. Hopefully, with the PIV processor and Tehama chipset, Intel will be able to remove this system bottleneck.

    Another feature of the PIV processor which should help increase performance is its SSE2 instruction set. SSE stands for Streaming SIMD Extension, which is the second generation of MMX instructions use for accelerating multimedia applications and games. PIV's SSE2 will take this one step further. Intel will include 144 new instructions with SSE2. This will make the PIV equal or better than Apple's G4 Velocity Engine.

    Intel is taking more steps to increase overall system performance, and not just the processor speed itself. With SSE2, a 400MHz CPU bus, larger L1 and L2 cache, a new Tehama chipset with ATA-100, a PIV system should be much faster than today's Pentium III/820 chipset PCs.