Introduction

A few months after having released the Pentium 4 2.53 GHz, Intel is back, big time, with a brand new Pentium 4 clocked at the unbelievable speed of 2.8 GHz. This new processor fully exploits the Northwood core and the Pentium 4 architecture to deliver an unprecedented level of power for today’s most demanding applications and games. At 2.8 GHz the Pentium 4 has never been so close to the mythic 3 GHz barrier that should be broken very soon. Available for the back to school season, this new processor is to date the fastest processor ever produced. 

In the meantime Intel has also released a new i845 based motherboard that is probably the most complete motherboard Intel has ever produced. The D845EBT motherboard comes with FireWire, Ethernet, RAID and native USB 2.0 features we’ll review in details.

Features

• Based upon Intel's leading 0.13 micron manufacturing process technology
• Intel NetBurst Micro Architecture which represents a real technological breakthrough with a total bandwidth of 4.2 GB/s clocked at 533 MHz
• New SSE2 enhanced instructions perfect for a new class of applications with more than 144 second-generation Streaming SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) instructions
• Rapid Execution Engine with two ALUs (Arithmetic Logic Units) clocked at twice the core processor frequency delivering a data transfer rate of 48 GB/s
• Execution Trace Cache that stored decoded micro-ops in the order of program execution for increased performance,
• Advanced Transfer Cache: The Level 2 Advanced Transfer Cache (ATC) is 512 KB in size and delivers a higher data throughput channel between the Level 2 cache and the processor core
• An Advanced Dynamic Execution engine that is an out-of-order speculative execution engine that keeps the execution units executing instructions
• Enhanced floating point/multimedia
• Intel MMX compatible
• Revamped Pipeline now named Hyper-Pipelined Technology allowing more stages, faster processor execution times, and more instructions in the CPU core than ever before.

Benefits

• Enhance your broadband experience: As service providers continue to offer faster Internet connections, your processor will not only have to work harder, but smarter. With up to 2.8 GHz of raw power, the Pentium® 4 processor combined with broadband gives you incredible online performance. Plus, the Pentium 4 processor gives you the power you need to handle emerging Web technologies.

• Realistic Digital Imaging: Turn your personal computer into a video-editing studio with the Pentium® 4 processor. With its innovative Intel® NetBurst™ micro- architecture, the Pentium 4 processor has the power to smoothly run intensive multiple graphics programs simultaneously, and allows you to put the finishing touches on your digital video, 3D animation and digital photography with professional quality effects.

• Intense online gaming: The Pentium® 4 processor takes PC gaming to an amazing new level with its boost in performance and capability. Higher polygon counts and an improved floating point technology intensify 3D environments and creates lifelike movement. Sound quality is also greatly increased due to the redesigned Streaming SIMD Extensions 2.

• Advanced audio & video online: Every Pentium® 4 processor has features that enable accelerated video, speech and image processing. Talk to your fellow gamer in Russia. Speak for hours with distant relatives online. Capture the power of sight and sound with the Pentium 4 processor.

• Increase personal productivity: The Pentium® 4 processor allows you to run several complex multimedia applications simultaneously without interruption or decreased performance. This is due in part to our new set of multimedia instructions and improved floating point unit. You'll see significant improvements in the speed of this processor and the amount of work you can do at one time.