Intel Discontinues Extreme Edition P4

bizpile writes "X-bit Labs reports that Intel is stopping production of its Extreme Edition Pentium 4s. The company said in its statement sent to clients, 'Market demand for the Intel Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition supporting Hyper-Threading technology 3.20GHz with 800MHz processor system bus in mPGA478 packaging has shifted to higher performance Intel processors.'"

Comments

AMD-64

[Krusty Da Klown]

Since the arrival of Doom 3 I think we know to where the REAL market demand shifted.

to AMD

[hkg4r7h]

Market demand has shifted to higher performance, and cheaper AMD processors ;-)

The whole line?

[R2P2]

From the statement in the article, it sounds like they're just discontinuing the 3.20Ghz, socket 478 version of the chip, not the whole P4 EE line.

Re:The whole line?

[Amiga Lover]

From the statement in the article it really sounds like someone has an excess of corporatespeak.

"Market demand for the Intel Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition supporting Hyper-Threading technology 3.20GHz with 800MHz processor system bus in mPGA478 packaging has shifted to higher performance Intel processors.'"

translates to

"Those chips weren't selling cos they were too slow"

Of course it failed; it was a useless gimmick

[TyrranzzX]

Why would I need a 2 meg l3 cache on a gaming processor that only increases performance by 1-5%? Combine that with extrordinary cost, cooling measures, the size of the proc itself, and power consumption and failure to sell is predictable.

Re:Of course it failed; it was a useless gimmick

[ColaMan]

But.... but... they used the "EXTREME" adjective!
That should've moved a million units , right there!

Sales reap: "Hey buddy, wanna buy a (takes deep breath) Intel Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition supporting Hyper-Threading technology 3.20GHz with 800MHz processor system bus in mPGA478 packaging ?"

Customer : "Er, no"

Sales Rep: "Hmm, the fact that it's the EXTREME EDITION does nothing for you?"

Customer : "Oh, its the EXTREME EDITION?!? I simply must take things to the (strains voice) EXTREME!! I'll take six!"

Sales Rep: "Really?"

Customer : "No, you idiot. Now show me your Athlon stock before I lose my patience and go buy my stuff online."

Re:Of course it failed; it was a useless gimmick

[rsmith-mac]

It may have been a failed gimmick performance wise, but it puts AMD in an odd situation. AMD had the Athlon FX line positioned against the P4EE's, while the high-end A64's went against the normal P4's(the 3800+ is priced similar to the 3.6ghz P4, etc), and now the P4EE line isn't there. AMD is going to need to do some repositioning of the FX line, otherwise it will fall in between the consumer A64, and the workstation/server Opteron 1xx line.

Re:Of course it failed; it was a useless gimmick

[Mac Degger]

Well, you have to admit that it does make for a great cpu to do 3d work with. Large L3=good for thta kind of thing, expecially if you can't afford a four processor xeon box or something similar.

Re:Of course it failed; it was a useless gimmick

[Deliveranc3]

Gaming performance on processors has been increasing increadibly slowly.

Trying to sell processors to high end gamers may start becomming an uphill battle. a 2500+ is still pretty much all you need, (Though I'd buy a 939 a64 if I was purchasing) and when the money can go towards a x800pro you can see that even the low end gamer crowd (Yes you can build a gaming rig for $500) will be looking at you dubiously.

Re:Of course it failed; it was a useless gimmick

[Dogtanian]

Sales Rep: "Hmm, the fact that it's the EXTREME EDITION does nothing for you?"

Problem; anyone who is likely to be swayed by the fact it's called "Extreme" (*) is going to expect it to be spelled "Xtreme". Or "Xxxtreme". Or "Xtreme to the MAXXXXXXXXXXX!".

They could have put a little picture of Tony Hawk on top of the CPU (the fact that the heatsink would cover it up shouldn't matter when you're selling to cretins).

Anyway, it's passe now, Intel have just announced the "P4 Street Edition". It's totally urban, dude!

(*) Technical term: Stupid fscker with too much money.

You mean

[Omega1045]

Market demand for the Intel Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition supporting Hyper-Threading technology 3.20GHz with 800MHz processor system bus in mPGA478 packaging has shifted to higher performance Intel processors.'

You mean everyone has been heading for the less expensive, better performing AMD chips, from which you are now copying instruction sets.

"EE"

[MarcoPon]

Maybe because "EE" really stand for Extreme Expensive?

Bye!

Re:"EE"

[jaywee]

No, It's Emergency Edition

Branding

[mauthbaux]

Honestly, I think that the only thing that as far as cost and performance ratios go, AMD has the upper hand. People who keep up with the industry are (I assume) fairly well aware of this fact.

From what I can tell, intel's only remaining advantages are in niche markets (not consumer desktops), and the fact that most people buying consumer-level desktops haven't even heard of AMD. I doubt that AMD will be able to overthrow intel's brand-recognition supremacy, but intel will be facing some tough decisions if they do...

Re:Branding

[leereyno]

Most people buying consumer-level desktops don't know the difference between a CPU and a CPA.

Intel only has brand name recognition because they advertise themselves as a brand name.

I think AMD would do well to advertise themselves as a brand also. If I were them I'd completely ignore Intel in my ads. Rather than saying "We're just as good as intel," they should be saying "We're the shit and we've never even heard of Intel."

The reason that this kind of advertisement would be successful is because your average consumer doesn't know anything about computers. Ads that simply encourage consumers to feel good about AMD as a brand will therefore be more effective than ads with a more technical message. They should use the fact that consumers don't know about them to their advantage by NOT introducing themselves as an underdog or their wares as "3rd party" products. They should instead imply that they and their products are the standard, which increasingly they are.

Lee

Not discontinued and not stopping making P4EEs

[ricky-road-flats]

It's just the 3.2GHz one, the oldest and slowest. Now the 3.4 and 3.6 are out, it's natural to retire the slowpoke of the bunch.

There's no mention whatever of the whole Extreme Edition line being stopped, in fact they recently said they would be making further new ones in the near future... This is mentioned (with new FSB and clock speeds) here and here and here, for instance - and all quite recently.

Re:AMD for gaming, Intel for real work.

[mabinogi]

> thus I use Intel. I tested AMD once.

Yup, you're right, them XScales sure beat those K5s

While you're at it, you'd better check your Microsoft using your Norton, I think your Adobe just got trashed.

Re:AMD for gaming, Intel for real work.

[Anonymous Coward]

But for real work, I prefer real computer.

"VAX - when you care enough to steal the very best"

Long product name...

[oberondarksoul]

Market demand for the Intel Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition supporting Hyper-Threading technology 3.20GHz with 800MHz processor system bus in mPGA478 packaging has shifted to higher performance Intel processors.

Try saying that with a mouth full of cheese three times fast...

No surprise

[slayer99]

Hyperthreading is a neat hack, nothing more. It seems designed exclusively to fool non-techies into thinking that they have a 2 or 4 way system when in fact they have half the number of actual processors, and additional really crippled ones.

That combined with the price means my last purchase was a pair of dual opteron workstations.

Re:No surprise

[jrockway]

Hyperthreading was a good way for intel to get itself out of a jam. The p4 had a REALLY long pipeline, and in order to keep it filled most of the time, they needed two threads feeding it with instructions.

Basically there are multiple units (say integer units) that can run concurrently. If you can get two integer operations to compute at the same time, then you just increased performance. Hyperthreading was a way for the OS to help the CPU keep it's execution units full.

And yeah, "low-end" Opterons are cheap these days. I have my eye on a dual-opteron setup...

Re:No surprise

[Proc6]

Do you actually use a computer to do real CPU intensive work?

I do, a ton of it. The last 10 years of my life have been rendering animation, compressing video, and authoring CDs and DVDs. At any time I have 1-3 apps maxing the CPU(s) of my machine(s). As my primary workstation I have always had duals, but worked on singles often. Duals make Windows tolerable but are expensive. Hyperthreading brought 90% of the smoothness of duals to the average person. You can be rendering out an AfterFX composition (or anything compute bound) and the machine still feels pretty light on the load.

Now if HT CPUs were 3x the cost, yes, that would be gimmicky. But it's a feature that's become standard in CPUs and doesn't really cost you any noticeable amount more (P3 HT 3ghz is what, $200? oooo scary), and in the end gives everyone somewhere between a "little" smoother to "a hell of a lot" smoother functioning OS's. Gosh, that sucks. It's not out to "fool people", it's a nice advancement in processor technology.

Re:No, it was a planned failure...

[ncr53c8xx]

But it managed to squeeze the little extra on the performance graphs comparing the "best" AMD vs Intel processors, cost and other things be damned.

But it was still beaten by many of the AMD chips, so even the desperate move didn't pay off. Remember the 1 GHz PIII? They put out an overclocked chip to beat AMD and it blew up in their face.

Intel fumbled once with the Athlon being the fastest thing around, they're not making the same mistake twice. If they showed signs of weakness, it could cost them vastly more in "mainstream" P4 sales than keeping a EE line to put on charts.

It was much more than a stumble. For the first time, Intel is behind AMD in technology, and everything they have thrown at the problem has failed (the Itanic, Rambus). And now their CEO is expressing his frustration in public about product delays and failures. Looks like everything is going AMD's way.