Intel to take a Step Back in 2006

mmonnin

Conroe, the code name for this upcoming processor from Intel, is pretty much speculation but there is no reason for NetBurst to continue. By taking a step back to the P6 era, like the P-M, and adding 64-bits and today's technology, Intel will be able to take steps forward by making a wider/more parallel, more powerful processor while keeping the power consumption down.

If we don our speculation hats for a minute, we'd say that Conroe will return to more typical pipeline lengths and also reduce the maximum clock speed of the processors based off it relative to NetBurst. A 20 pipeline stage design, give or take, seems to be reasonable.

An updated roadmap beyond Presler is pretty much speculation until IDF in the Fall.

Source: Anandtech

GrayFox

Netburst was never a step forward it was slow and offered very little benefits.

mmonnin

Netburst architechure is not really performing at its fullest. Perfomance increase grows faster than its increease in speed. The reason it's not performing at its fullest is that current chip production technology cannot produce chips that can run at speeds where Netburst runs best at. When Prescott was first released a study was done comparing the Northwood core to the Prescott core at different speeds. At default speeds, around 3.2GHz at the time, Northwood won hands down in every arena. But when overclocking both cores to around 4GHz, the Prescott gained ground and surpased the Northwood core in some benchmarks. Longer pipelines need higher frequencies. The thing is, 4GHx and above is not a viable option right now because of power consumption. Intel had plans to have 4GHz CPUs out a long time ago but they have yet to release anything over 3.8GHz and have turned their attention elsewhere besides linear raw speed.

muddocktor

Yep, the raw power consumption and the leakage current of their present or even upcoming technology have pretty much killed netburst. The P4 is by no means a bad performing chip, just inefficient as hell.

airbornflght

yeh...ineficient is a word, but a lot of people that know a little about electrical work know about a word called a dead short, just sucking up the electricity and makeing lots of heat....