D 840 Dual-Core LGA775

- Apparently chafing under the invisible restrictions of Moore's law, Intel and AMD spent 2004 searching for ways of further improving processor designs that had virtually reached their maximum speeds under current manufacturing technologies. Both companies changed processor naming schemes and tinkered with cache sizes, while Intel flirted with changing the basic design of the Pentium 4 to mirror that of its highly successful Pentium M mobile CPU.
- AMD was apparently first to hit on a possible answer to the dilemma facing them. If one chip was good, two chips must be better! Multiple CPU machines have existed for years at the business level, and the performance advantages are well understood, so why not cram two cores into a single processor die and bring multiprocessing to the desktop?
- Predicably, both companies dived head first into this new market, promising (and eventually delivering) dual-core desktop processors and chipsets. Intel split its dual-core offerings into two product lines; the high-end Pentium Extreme Edition clocked at 3.2GHz using the company's Hyperthreading technology, and the mainstream Pentium D 840, 830 and 820 processors clocked at 3.2GHz, 3.0GHz and 2.8GHz respectively without Hyperthreading.
- As the Intel Pentium Extreme Edition is priced beyond the grasp of most consumers, PCSTATS has opted to forego that CPU in favour of the flagship Intel Pentium D 840 processor, clocked at a respectable 3.2GHz and retailing for about $740CDN ($650USD). I should also mention our thanks to DAIWA Distribution for helping to facilitate this review. This 90nm processor uses a pair of Prescott cores running at 16 x 200MHz to bring multi-processing to the desktop in a LGA775 pinless package.
