Jason Dunn
06-01-2004, 11:30 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116354,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116354,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>Intel has released several new processors based on their 90-nanometer process. The target of these new CPUs are desktop replacement-style notebook computers:<br /><br /><i>"The new 538, 532, and 518 chips run at 3.2 GHz, 3.06 GHz, and 2.8 GHz...Intel advised notebook manufacturers that the new 90-nanometer processors would consume 88 watts under maximum conditions, as compared to the 76 watts consumed by the 0.13-micron version of the Mobile Intel Pentium 4 under similar circumstances...The new Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processors have 1MB of Level 2 cache, twice as much as older Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processors, as well as 13 new instructions that improve the performance of multimedia applications."</i><br /><br />I usually greet new CPU announcements with a smile, because you can never have enough CPU firepower when editing video/audio/photos, but this seems like a step back in several ways - more power consumption and likely less performance to boot (Prescott-based just don't perform very well at the moment). The extra cache will be a big boost, but suddenly that 2.0 Ghz Dothan CPU is looking like a better match than one of these new Prescott-based CPUs. Hrm. :?