The Future of Prescott: When Moore gives you Lemons…

21 Jun, 2004 at 2:30pm ET Article published in Tech

Ars-Technica muses on why Intel is producing a Dual Core processor based on the high wattage Prescott core instead on power efficient Dothan Core.

My first reaction upon reading the dual-Prescott rumor was incredulity. With its simpler architecture and higher performance per watt, Dothan, the desktop version of the Pentium M, seemed like a much more likely candidate for dual-core treatment than the large, hot, complex, power-hungry Pentium 4.

In the Geek.com interview, the Intel representative offered that the Pentium M’s shorter pipeline is supposedly “not suited” for hyperthreading. Since there was no elaboration on that point in the Geek.com article, I’ll do that here.

Source: Ars-Technica

Comments

21 Jun 2004 ~ 1:04pm Thrax

Because we got obsessed with MHz as a marketing number and made Prescott's pipeline so ridiculously long, Prescott benefits much more from a latency-hiding technique like hyperthreading than a saner design like the Pentium M.

I like that quote more.
21 Jun 2004 ~ 2:30pm Omega65 Ars-Technica muses on why Intel is producing a Dual Core processor based on the high wattage Prescott core instead on power efficient Dothan Core.

My first reaction upon reading the dual-Prescott rumor was incredulity. With its simpler architecture and higher performance per watt, Dothan, the desktop version of the Pentium M, seemed like a much more likely candidate for dual-core treatment than the large, hot, complex, power-hungry Pentium 4.

In the Geek.com interview, the Intel representative offered that the Pentium M's shorter pipeline is supposedly "not suited" for hyperthreading. Since there was no elaboration on that point in the Geek.com article, I'll do that here.

Source: Ars-Technica
21 Jun 2004 ~ 2:32pm Omega65 Posted to Front Page and threads merged....
21 Jun 2004 ~ 3:32pm Gobbles my laptop has a pentium m, I wish it had hyperthreading...

Its not bad.. if only the rest of the parts were as fast...

I managed to convert a dvd to svcd in under 3 hours... I assume thats pretty decent. It was a 1 hour 29 min dvd...

Up with dothan down with everything else

Gobbles
21 Jun 2004 ~ 4:49pm edcentric Omega, I think that we all know why there won't be a dual core Dothan, P4 would be dead and useless at that point.
21 Jun 2004 ~ 4:52pm Thrax That's what Intel is banking on. They're ditching the P4 quite soon, which is why LGA775 was introduced. It <i>would</i> have been the Tejas socket, but it can just as easily be the dothan-based successor to the p4.
21 Jun 2004 ~ 6:51pm mmonnin You wouldnt gain as much with Hyperthreading on the P-M compared to what the P4 gained with Hyperthreading. The P-M is so much more efficient that the pipe is so much more fuller compared to the P4.