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Intel's P4 3GHz w/ 800MHz Bus & Canterwood Chips
OldGrayDave writes "Intel steps out today with their new Pentium 4 3GHz chip that runs on an
800MHz System Bus. They've also released "Canterwood", the chipset chipset
for the P4 that supports Dual Channel DDR400 memory, native Serial ATA 150, RAID 0,
AGP8X, USB2.0 and a host of other bells and whistles.
Check out this showcase and performance analysis at HotHardware, to see what
all the buzz is about. Intel distances themselves again from the Athlon." Or, you can read more at Hardavenue, mbreview, Tom's Hardware, hardware unlimited, or The Tech Report. I dunno...hardware gets faster, bus gets faster. Tide goes in, tide goes out.
*Sigh*, this argument comes up every time there's a new processor out.
There may be no pressing mainstream need for these processor's insane speeds now, but there are two things:
1) Niche markets which will utilize the higher speeds (video editing, photo editing, music production, scientific computing) and
2) the Future. Software will always find a way to use that extra power. We call it "bloat" normally, but then we usually forget about that and accept it as the norm and shun everyone who's running less than 2Ghz.
Better now? Move along
This isn't meant as a troll, but I'm sure many of the more... sensitive ... Mac users will take it as such anyway.
This speed boost is great for the x86 world. Speed keeps getting better. Intel and AMD keep competing and leapfrogging each other to greater heights. My sorrow is that Apple's offerings really are *years behind* right now. I know, I know, speed doesn't matter when Macs are slower, but when Macs had the speed advantage, the Mac users claimed speed was all-important and there was no problem attacking the PC users based on their sorry speed. Mac users, like everyone else in the world it seems, aren't objective - if the PowerBook is thinner, they claim size (ahem) is important. When the PC world shows us the Superthin Vaio, we say that Size doesn't matter, it's how you use it (ahem again). And that's the problem; that's why Apple doesn't feel the need to force speed increases out of Moto and IBM to keep up with the Joneses - Mac users are so damn faithful, that they don't apply any market pressure to Apple to force them to compete! Instead, the "Mac Faithful" DEFEND Apple's weaknesses, allowing Apple to slack off in the processor department.
Next time a MacZealot defends Apple's 1 Ghz processors on a slow bus, tell him that he's NOT helping Apple. The way to help Apple is to absolutely demand faster processors, and threaten to switch to x86 if they don't deliver. If we give Apple a "Get out of Jail Free card" with regards to processor speed, we'll NEVER be competitive with Intel.
And yes, I've heard the RUMORS about the IBM chips. They'll still be far behind this, RISC or not.
News.com just updated their article on the chip to state that "a possible problem with the 3GHz Pentium 4, discovered at the last minute, forced the company to delay the chip late on Sunday."