[geeks] p4 processor spec q

[Nate]

On Dec 15, 2009, at 6:37 PM, Sandwich Maker wrote:

> what does the 'e' mean on certain p4 processors?  eg. 3.2e/800.
> poking through processorfinder doesn't show them having anything other
> chips don't have, and a little time spent hunting p4 prescott docs at
> intel turned up blanks too.

When Intel introduced the Prescott based P4s, it was a fairly significant
change to the P4 architecture (much longer pipeline, several other changes).
To distinguish it the older "Northwood" cores which Intel was still selling at
the same time, they added an "E" to the product name of the Prescott cores.
At the same clock speed, Northwood is faster than Prescott, but Prescott was
eventually released in higher frequencies, and in dual-core configurations
while Northwood was always single-core and retired sooner.