LESSON 47

PENTIUM IV [4]

Task 1. Read and translate the text:

Задание 1. Прочитайте и переведите текст:

The Pentium 4 is a seventh-generation x 86 architecture microprocessor produced by Intel and is their first all-new CPU design, called the NetBurst architecture, since the Pentium Pro of 1995. The original Pentium 4, codenamed «Willamette», ran at 1.4 and 1.5 GHz and was released in November 2000.

The design goal of the Pentium 4 was to scale to fast clock speeds, because consumers were beginning to purchase computers based on GHz ratings. To this extent the P4 appears to be a classic example of marketing concerns driving technological development.

Intel stated in their marketing at the launch of the P4 it was an architecture designed to scale to 10 GHz. However, the architecture used in P4 encountered unsolvable thermal problems at 4 GHz. This forced Intel to abandon development of the Pentium 4 in mid-2005 to focus on the cooler running Pentium M, which was repositioned for the desktop computer and small server markets. In retrospect, the Pentium III core was technologically superior to Pentium 4.

And Willamette, the first Pentium 4, suffered long delays in the design process. At that time, the Willamette was only expected to breach the 1 GHz (1000 MHz) barrier upon its introduction. However, once the Pentium III was introduced, obviously Intel could not name Willamette as a Pentium II. Because its architecture was a relatively large departure from the Pentium III,it was named Pentium 4, ending Intel's Roman-Numeral nomenclature system.

April 2001 brought the 1.7 GHz P4, the first one to provide performance clearly superior to Pentium III. July saw 1.6 and 1.8 GHz models and in August 2001, Intel released 1.9 and 2.0 GHz Pentium 4s. In the same month, they released a new chipset that supported much cheaper PC133 SDRAM.

The 2.0 GHz was the first P4 to provide a serious challenge to the rival Athlon Thunderbird, which until then had been unquestionably the fastest x86 CPU on the market.

In October 2001 the Athlon XP regained a clear lead for AMD, but in January 2002 Intel released Pentium 4s with their new Northwood core at 2.0 and 2.2 GHz. A 2.4 GHz P4 was released in April 2002, a 2.53 GHz part in May and a 3.06 GHz Pentium 4 arrived in November.

The 3.06 GHz processor supported Hyper-threading, first appeared in Xeon, enabling multiple threads to be run together by duplicating some parts of the processor in order to let the operating system believe that there are two logical processors. Hyper-Threading was present in all Northwood CPUs, but was disabled in the core in all but the 3.06 GHz model. In April 2003, Intel launched new variants, ranging from 2.4 to 3.0 GHz. The key difference on these new versions was that they all supported Hyper-Threading, and ran their system buses at 800 MHz.

On February 1, 2004, Intel introduced a new core codenamed «Prescott». The core uses a 90pm process. Although a Prescott clocked at the same rate as a Northwood, benchmarks show that a Northwood runs slightly faster than a Prescott in gaming applications. However, with video editing and other multimedia software, the Prescott's extra cache gives it a clear speed advantage over the Northwood. 3.8 GHz was the fastest Prescott-based pro­cessor ever mass-produced.

Finally, the thermal problems were so severe, Intel decided to abandon the Prescott architecture altogether, and attempts to roll out a 4 GHz part were abandoned, as a waste of internal resources. Intel released a new Prescott core codenamed «Prescott 2M» by the first quarter of 2005. It features new 64-bit technology. On 14 November 2005, Intel released Prescott 2M processors with VT (Virtualization Technology, codenamed «Wonderpool») enabled. Intel only released two models of this Prescott 2M category: 662 and 672, running at 3.6 and 3.8 GHz, respectively. Intel will release the final version of Pentium 4, codenamed «Cedar Mill» at the first quarter of 2006. Cedar Mill is expected to solve overheat problems of Prescott.

Task 2. Answer the following questions:

Задание 2. Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1. What is the Pentium 4?

2. What was the original Pentium 4 codename?

3. What was the clock speed of the original Pentium 4?

4. When was the first Pentium IV released?

5. What was the design goal of the Pentium 4?

6. What statement was made by Intel while launching the P4?

7. Why did the P4 microprocessors never overcome the 4 GHz barrier?

8. Why did Willamette, the first Pentium 4, suffer long delays in the design process?

9. When was the 1.7 GHz P4 produced?

10. When was 2.0 GHz Pentium 4 released?

11. What was the main feature of the 2.0 GHz P4?

12. When did a 3.06 GHz Pentium 4 arrive?

13. When were the versions of P4 supporting Hyper-Threading technology launched by Intel?

14. What is Hyper Threading technology?

15. When «Prescott» P4 was introduced?

16. Why did Intel make decision to abandon the development of Prescott core architecture?

17. What was the fastest Intel processor ever mass-produced?

18. What was the clock speed of the fastest Intel processor?

19. When was «Prescott 2M» core introduced?

Task 3. Find the English equivalents for the words and word — combinations given below in the text:

Задание 3. Найдите эквиваленты следующих слов в тексте:

потребитель, столкнуться, сервер, явно, относительно, исполнение, неоспоримо, восстановление, для того чтобы, запуск, топографическая метка,

массовый продукт, давать возможность, соответственно, перегревать.

Task 4. Translate the following words and word — combinations into Russian:

Задание 4. Прочтите следующие слова и словосочетания и переведите их на русский язык:

the design goal, to purchase, To this extent, the desktop, delay, breach, to provide, a new chipset, a serious challenge to the rival, on the market, at the same rate, to roll out, features, respectively.

Task 5. Make the sentences interrogative:

Задание 5. Поставьте следующие предложения в вопросительную форму:

1. The Pentium 4 is a seventh-generation x 86 architecture microprocessor.

2. Hyper-Threading was present in all Northwood CPUs, but was disabled in the core in all but the 3.06 GHz model.

3. On February 1, 2004, Intel introduced a new core codenamed «Prescott».

4. The core uses a 90 pm process.

5. Cedar Mill is expected to solve overheat problems of Prescott.