No hammer time for intel's prescott: next-gen P4 enhancements don't include 64-bit computing - Semiconductors

Electronic News, May 20, 2002 by Tom Murphy

At Intel Corp.'s annual analyst meeting two weeks ago, President and COO Paul Otellini hinted that Intel's next-generation processor would come with some enhancements that had not been previously announced.

This vague reference--something Intel has a history of doing--will not include 64-bit computing extensions to the Prescott version of the Pentium 4 processor, a company spokesman told Electronic News last week. Yet that assertion may not completely put to bed the notion that Intel might someday extend its existing lines of 32-bit PC processors to that arena.

After Otellini's remarks, speculation abounded that 64-bit extensions would be Intel's attempt to answer Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s (AMD) Hammer product line, the company s next foray into processors.

But Intel routinely introduces instruction set enhancements, such as upgrading its multimedia package from SSE to SSEII.

The Prescott code name denotes Intel's Pentium 4 processor architecture on 90nm process technology. That product is scheduled to make its debut in the second half of next year and will include enhancements such as Intel's Hyper-Threading technology, a spokesman said. Hyper-Threading will allow the processor to execute more than one instruction at a time and use more of the chip's computing resources to provide an extra 20 percent to 30 percent boost in performance, according to Intel.

A version of Hyper-Threading might be found in Pentium 4-based products shipping today, according to Kevin Krewell, an analyst for Micro Design Resources (MDR) of San Jose. However, those instructions are mainly found in the Xeon class of server processors, which share a similar architecture with the Pentium 4 under the umbrella of what Intel calls the NetBurst architecture. (MDR is owned by Reed Business Information, the parent company of Electronic News.)

Even though the instructions for Hyper-Threading might exist, they won't be doing much good until applications that explicitly take advantage of that capability are running through the processors' transistors, Krewell said.

But the notion of Intel processors possessing capabilities that are not fully active reignites the intrigue between the company and AMD. AMD of Sunnyvale, Calif., is due to release its Hammer-based products later this year-a product family said to execute both 32-bit and 64-bit instructions. It won't require 32-bit applications to be ported over to the 64-bit world in order to take advantage of the additional memory address space, AMD representatives claimed. Additionally, the Hammer won't see the drop-off in performance that a stand-alone 64-bit processor might experience while executing 32-bit instructions, a claim plaguing Intel's Itanium line.

It will be a long time before Hammer processors start executing 64-bit applications on the desktop, Krewell noted. Even though Microsoft Corp. recently said it would support the Hammer's capabilities with its Windows operating system, Krewell said it wouldtake some time for applications developers to devise programs that will allow the processor family to strut its stuff.

Meanwhile, Intel has kept its 32-bit processors and 64-bit processors separate. While Intel's NetBurst line will tackle the 32-bit stuff, the Itanium line will be relegated to the heavy math of 64-bit computing and rarely will the two cross paths on the applications front.

But industry rumors circulating say that Intel is secretly working on a way for its 32-bit processors to execute 64-bit instructions. Intel has never acknowledged such a project, only saying that the company's separate 32-bit/64-bit worldview is what its customers are asking for.

But should Hammer catch fire as a best-selling processor and should x86-64-bit applications find mainstream market acceptance, Krewell said he believes Intel could rapidly change its separate worldview and introduce a 32-bit processor with 64-bit extensions.