System Overview; Intel ® Pentium ® 4 Processor In The 478-Pin Package; Intel; Chipset - Intel Pentium 4 Design Manual

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1.3

System Overview

The Pentium 4 processor in the 478-pin package with the Intel 850 chipset family delivers Intel's
highest performance desktop platform to date. The processor, chipset, and memory are balanced to
provide the best possible performing systems.
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1.3.1

Intel

This processor has a number of features that significantly increase its performance from previous
generation IA-32 processors. The Intel
features as well as some improvements on existing features.
Intel NetBurst microarchitecture features include hyper-pipelined technology, rapid execution
engine, 400 MHz system bus, and execution trace cache. The hyper pipelined technology doubles
the pipeline depth over the previous generation of processors allowing the processor to reach much
higher core frequencies. The rapid execution engine allows the 2 integer ALUs in the processor to
run at twice the core frequency that allows many integer instructions to execute in 1/2 clock tick.
The 400 MHz system bus is a quad-pumped bus running off a 100 MHz system clock making
3.2 GB/sec data transfer rates possible. The execution trace cache is a level 1 cache that stores
approximately 12k decoded micro-operations, which removes the decoder from the main
execution path, thereby increasing performance.
Improved features within the Intel NetBurst microarchitecture include the advanced dynamic
execution, advanced transfer cache, enhanced floating point and multi-media unit, and Streaming
SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2). The advanced dynamic execution improves speculative execution and
branch prediction internal to the processor. The advanced transfer cache is a 256 KB (512 KB for
the Intel Pentium 4 processor with 512-KB L2 cache on 0.13 micron process), on-die level 2 cache
with an increased bandwidth over previous micro-architectures. The floating point and multi-
media units have been improved by making the registers 128 bits wide and adding a separate
register for data movement. Finally, SSE2 adds 144 new instructions for double precision floating
point, SIMD integer, and memory management.
This processor supports uni-processor configurations only. The same manageability features,
which are included in Intel Pentium III processors, are included on the Pentium 4 processor in the
478-pin package with the addition of thermal monitor. Thermal monitor allows systems to be
designed for anticipated processor thermals as opposed to worst case with no performance
degradation expected.
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1.3.2 Intel
The Intel 850 chipset consists of two main components: The Memory Controller Hub (MCH), and
the IO Controller Hub (ICH2). These components are interconnected via an Intel proprietary
interface called hub interface. The hub interface is designed into the Intel 850 chipset to provide
efficient communication between components.
Additional hardware platform features include AGP 4X mode, RDRAM technology, Ultra
ATA/100, Low Pin Count interface (LPC), integrated LAN and Universal Serial Bus 1.1 (USB).
The platform is also ACPI compliant and supports Full-on, Stop Grant, Suspend to RAM, Suspend
to Disk, and Soft-off power management states. Through the use of an appropriate LAN
connection, the platform supports Wake-on-LAN* for remote administration and troubleshooting.
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Intel Pentium 4 Processor / Intel
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Pentium 4 Processor in the 478-pin Package

850 Chipset

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850 Chipset Family Platform Design Guide
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NetBurst microarchitecture includes a number of new
Introduction
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