Intel's Prescott sees light of day

Intel has today introduced six Pentium 4 processors for desktop PCs, touting advantages for business productivity applications and consumer concerns such as gaming and home entertainment.

The new crop of Pentium 4s, which will spawn a number of new desktop PC models, will include three chips based on a fresh processor design, code-named Prescott. Intel will add two new speed versions of its current Pentium 4, dubbed Northwood. The sixth Prescott Pentium 4, detailed today and running at 3.4GHz, won't be available until later in the quarter.

Rick Skett, director and country manager for Intel UK & Ireland, told silicon.com: "On the business sides we're seeing increasing demands on the processor. With richer media, multitasking in [Microsoft] Office 2003 and better security such as encryption running in the background [of some applications] these new products provide headroom for the future."

Demands on processors from gaming and home media centres are increasing in Europe, he said, and hinted at a range of PC makers who will be taking shipments, including a possible surprise or two.

"There will be the usual suspects," he said. "But you may see something from our friends up in Burnley" - referring to Time, a long-time AMD supporter in the UK.

The first Prescott chips will come out at speeds of 2.8GHz, 3GHz and 3.2GHz, Intel said. The chipmaker will distinguish Prescott chips from Northwoods by marking them with an 'E'.

Intel often allows different generations of processors to overlap. The measure helps PC makers, especially those serving businesses, manage the transition from one generation to the next. This time, Pentium 4 Prescott and Northwood desktop chips will coexist at clock speeds ranging from 2.8GHz to 3.4GHz.

Prescott Pentium 4s will offer about the same performance as their Northwood counterparts, when measured at the same clock speeds, Intel said. A 3.2EGHz Prescott chip offered 14 per cent more performance than a similar Northwood in a test produced by Intel.

But Prescott includes a number of updates and changes, such as 1MB of cache - twice the size of Northwood - and several new instructions, designed to increase the Pentium 4's multimedia savvy, according to Intel.

The Prescott chip will take advantage of Intel's latest 90-nanometer manufacturing process, making it smaller, measuring 112 square millimetres versus Northwood's 132, and thus cheaper to produce.

Although Intel will offer a mix of the two chips at first, it plans to rapidly increase production of the Prescott Pentium 4, with the aim of spreading the chip as quickly as possible. As part of that effort, Prescott Pentium 4 chips should end up priced very close to Northwood chips, making it easier for PC makers to make the switch. Intel often uses price as a tool to motivate PC makers to move to its new chips, analysts say.

Indeed, James Oliver, product marketing manager for HP's desktop PC products, said: "If Prescott was higher priced, we'd probably still offer it, but given that [Intel] has priced it the same, it makes it easer for us to offer the better technology across the whole [desktop] line."

HP will offer Prescott chips in HP Pavilion and Compaq Presario desktops that are sold direct to customers, at first. It will start taking orders on them Wednesday.

Gateway will also offer Prescott Pentium 4s and Dell will fit some of the new chips into its Dimension desktops and also won't up prices. Its Dimension XPS game machine will be offered with either the 3.2EGHz Pentium 4, the 3.4GHz Northwood Pentium 4 or the 3.4GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition.

Announcements are also expected this week from a number of other PC makers.

Tony Hallett and John G Spooner. John G Spooner writes for CNET News.com.