Intel Quietly Launches Dual Core Mainstream Processors

One of the bigger tech launches was made in virtual stealth mode today. I couldn't even find the press release on Intel's web site. The "Smithfield" dual core Pentium D microprocessors are out the door.
Pentium D uses two Prescott cores without Hyperthreading technology. The Intel Pentium D processors 840, 830 and 820 are priced at $530, $316 and $241, respectively, in 1,000-unit quantities. I expect machines based on the 820 chip, with dual 2.8 GHz processors, to be available in the $800 range for the fall back-to-school season. That's a lot of multi-tasking horsepower for the money.

A new Prescott Pentium 4 aimed at single-task business power users, model 670, was also introduced. The Intel Pentium 4 model 670 is priced at $851 in 1,000-unit quantities.

The Pentium D processors also harness the new 945 chipset. In various combinations, the feature set includes:

• 1066, 800, 533 MHz front-side bus speeds
• PCI Express with x16 in 1 or 2 slots
• a new graphics accelerator, the GMA 950
• High-definition digital audio
• RAID support for RAID 5 and RAID 10 joins the current RAID 0,1
• 3 Gbps SATA 3 disk drive support
• Business desktops can get out-of-band management, which alows a remote tech to diagnose and re-boot a blue screen or dead machine
• DDR2 memory, with new support for mis-matched memory chips. You won;t lose dual-channel performance if, for example, you use a 256 MB and 512 MB DIMMs in the same channel

25 new Intel motherboards were released today as well. A cursory analysis of the product sheets indicates:

• You can run a dual core 860 Extreme Edition chip in any of the 25 motherboards. All 25 mobos are LGA 775 pin-out with support for 1066, 800, and 533 MHz front-side bus speeds; SATA 3 and ATA 100 disks, 8 USB 2.0 ports, one parallel ATA slot with two ports, and "instantly available PC" technology that allows, say, a DVD to be played without booting an OS.
• ATX, microATX, and BTX form factors are all well represented. Pergaps BTX will now get off the ground.
• The value mobos support the older GMA 900 graphics. Buyers would do well to look for the GMA 950 with twice the performance, since graphics requirements are going nowhere but up, and the price difference is trivial.
• Half the boards have two PCI-E x16 slots. This means nVidia's SLI technology, which uses two graphics boards to deliver superior (and costly) gaming performance, will be widely supported by Intel -- and presumably other OEMs.
• A minimum of 10/100 Ethernet, with options for 1 GHz and the new iAMT management technology
• Ten boards have matrix disk technology, with built-in RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10.

If you would like my spreadsheet on the above features, e-mail peter(at)oncomputers(dot)info You know the drill.

OEM motherboard support from the usual Taiwan suspects is expected immenently with comparable features.

Pentium D will more than meet the requirements, including graphics, for Microsoft's Longhorn operating system, when that arrives in a year or two.

I do not know why Intel is not blowing its horn about Pentium D? Maybe they are miffed at the less than stellar reviews of the dual-core 860 HT chip against arch-rival AMD. My take is dual core is great for power users -- like those who follow On Computers -- who want the much better (e.g., less hour glass) performance that only comes from having two CPUs ready to handle the juggling from all the processes we have going all the time. My next desktop will definitely be dual-core. The pricing is aggressive, implying Intel wants to quickly get Pentium D into the mainstream price bands, and can meet a steep volume ramp.

-- Peter S. Kastner