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Intel is releasing its first microprocessor built on its new 65nm process technology. The chip is also the first iteration of Presler, the dual-core successor to Intel's first dual-core chip, whose codename used to be Smithfield. This first chip is a Pentium Extreme Edition chip.
Mostly Presler is a die-shrink of Smithfield, so there are not many architectural changes. One of the differences is that Presler has more cache. In addition, the front-side bus of the Presler dual-core Extreme Edition has increased to 1066MHz. Also it's Intel's fastest dual-core chip, clocking in at 3.46GHz.
What we find in Presler is a significant performance improvement over its predecessor, the previous generation Extreme Edition; a successful beginning of the transition to 65nm; and possibly overall performance parity with the Athlon 64 X2. In particular, Intel has made some strides in 3D gaming.
Presler implements dual-core a bit differently than the previous generation Smithfield, though the difference is ever so subtle. Presler consists of a single chip with two separate dies on it. Unlike "Smithfield, the two cores are not a part of the same piece of silicon".
Presler sheds light on one reason Intel does not use an on-die memory controller like AMD does. Not having an on-die memory controller allows Intel to split the die in this way. "By splitting the die in two, Intel can reduce total failure rates and even be far more flexible with their manufacturing".
The increased L2 cache of Presler produces significant improvement in 3D games. In 3D gaming tests, "we start to see some more tangible performance gains".
Quake 4 is a harbinger of things to come, not just for the Pentium Extreme Edition but for the Athlon 64 X2 as well. Quake "saw some extremely large performance gains with the move to dual core".
The Pentium Extreme Edition is both dual-core and hyper-threaded. This affords the benchmarking community the opportunity to measure the benefits of Hyper Threading on dual-core processors. Hyper Threading enables the operating system to treat a single CPU, or a single core in this case, as if it were two distinct processors, and so handle more application theads at the same time. Hyper threading benefits two computing scenarios: multithreaded applications and multitasking several applications at the same time. With multithreaded apps "the performance advantage is clear - enabling Hyper Threading provides Intel with another 14-19% over the base dual core Presler".
With multitasking, the more applications running at once, the more opportunity Hyper Threading has to make a difference compared to AMD dual-core processors. Juggling five applications was "better done on the Presler HT system".
Nevertheless, all things considered the Pentium Extreme Edition still is unable to surpass the Athlon 64 X2. At the end of the day, "there is no clear cut victory".