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Pentium 4 Delayed

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the horribly-overpriced-and-unavailable dept.

An anonymous reader noted that CNet has a story saying how the Pentium 4 will be impossible to get for manufacturers wanting to ship them over the holidays. Apparently the system makers aren't that happy... but considering what Intel was charging for the things, I can't imagine who would buy one.

4 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Damn... by romco · · Score: 5

    How am I going to heat my house this winter?

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    AdFuel
  2. Who cares? by flatpack · · Score: 5

    Not meaning to come across as flamebait, but it seems to me that the future for people wanting a high end system is better served if they start exploring SMP options rather than the increasingly flaky vapourware that Intel keeps pushing out. Sure, AMD are pushing ahead with some better quality chips, but why pay all that money for a high end chip when you can get two cheaper ones for the same price?

    With Linux finally having some decent SMP support and Windows already possessing it (at least in the latest versions) it makes far more sense IMHO to go down this route if its performace you're looking for. Even with all the latest advances in processor technology, there's still only so much a single processor can do at once.

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    1. Re:Who cares? by jmv · · Score: 4

      The problem is that most users only run one (active) application at a time. Because most of these applications are not threaded (ever seen an SMP version of Word?) you still end up using only one CPU. Sure, I'd know how to make full use of even a 4-CPU box, but most people wouldn't use more than one CPU. ...Also add to that the current price of the dual boards, which makes buying a faster CPU still cheaper that 2 slower ones.

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      Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
    2. Re:Who cares? by grahamsz · · Score: 4

      Well this isn't really true.

      True most people will only have one active window at a time... you cant have any more on windows. But look at the amount of crap running in the background. My flatmates twin celeron feels VERY responsive because even when one app is hogging a cpu it's got one free to service all the routine crap.

      Word itself has been threaded for donkeys years, and any multithreaded app should automatically become an SMP version when there is more than one cpu. Also given the state of windows programming i'm starting to find the strong benifits in multithreading shit just from a coding point of view.... debugging is a whole other matter though.

      Additionally as SMP becomes more accepted we will soon see more and more supporting it, since most software developers out there have some deep resentment cauasing them to want to strike down intel and micro$oft.

      The other point is that word itself SHOULD NOT be able to occupy a whole p3 700 cpu for any length of time anyway... it's just an abuse of resources and we all know that microsoft wouldn't stand for it.

      Bear in mind that AMD hope to have dual cpu duron and athalon mobos out in the next 4 months, and have 4 and 8 way ath boards out by the end of next year.

      That should shake things up a bit, particualrly if you could run 8 $100 duron 1.5ghz (sounds about right for the end of next year) for little more than intels latest and greatest 2.6ghz p4.