Double-Whammy Look At The Pentium 4

SystemLogicNet writes: "We at SystemLogic.net have just taken a technical look at the Pentium 4 architecture. In the article we go over all the basics that all the other sites cover like the double pumped ALUs, iSSE2, the longer pipeline, etc, but in addition we have some discussion about how different program structurings have an impact upon the design, and performance of the Pentium 4. One of the major areas where this comes into play is how complex data structures interact with the underlying philosophy that the Pentium 4 is built upon -- extreme bandwidth. This Pentium 4 technical background can be read over here. At the same time, we've done a rigorous analysis, including benchmark description and discussion regarding the Pentium 4's performance, and this can be read over this way."

Comments

Re:Sad state of affairs

[aussersterne]

1 out of every 10 times you try and click on something, or double click something, or open a file, whatever, it fails. Every 10th Word file fails.

Umm... This isn't a very good analogy. Imagine instead:

1. Every tenth word file fails when you double-click on it the first time.
   
2. But when you double-click again it opens fine.
   
3. And you are able to double click on the document icons at a rate of over 1,000,000,000 every second.
   

What a joke...

[SaDan]

You want a real comparison of the P4 1.7gig to a MODERN Athlon processor? Go here:

Tom's Hardware Guide or AnandTech

Sorry, but comparing a 1.1gig/200Mhz FSB Athlon to a 1.7gig P4 is laughable at best. What hardware review site uses a processor that's over a year old (Athlon 1.1gig/200FSB) in a comparison to one of the latest processors from the competition?

Clock speed disparity is the point.

[Stickerboy]

also, note that the 1.7 ghz p4 has a 600 mhz advantage over the 1.1 ghz athlon and usually the performance difference was only 10-40%. the p4 has over 50% more processor mhz than the athlon. what an unfair comparison, especially when the 1.33 ghz athlon is out and available for purchase. processor mhz for processor mhz, the athlon beat the p4.

The point of the extremely long (20-stage) pipeline of the Pentium 4 is the ability to reach extremely high clock speeds - much higher than the Athlon could ever reach. Of course, Mhz-for-Mhz, the Athlon is going to beat the Pentium 4 performance-wise, but it wouldn't tell us anything except the obvious differences in the two's design philosophies.

One Quick Question

[Kalrand]

Did you just cut and paste a press release onto the front page of Slashdot?

I sure hope you Slashdot isn't selling Front Page space to any little company that pays...