What's new for PCs in 2004

What to look for in processors for 2004

AMD Athlon 64

After a year that saw only a few desktop processor cores inaugurated by the Intel (Northwood and repackaged Gallatin) and AMD (Thoroughbred B, Barton, Sledgehammer and Clawhammer), 2004 looks set to sizzle. For the moment, AMD has shrugged off its title of underdog with its sensational hammer cores (Athlon64 and FX-51). To continue with the momentum, the manufacturer will be launching four new cores through the year. These differ in terms of L2 (Level 2) cache sizes, different memory controllers (single and dual channel) and, of course, clock speeds.

However, don't count Intel out yet. The chip giant's overdue Prescott will make an appearance early this quarter. The Prescott will see its life covered by two generations of Intel chipsets and motherboards. It will originally begin life as a Socket 478 CPU supported by the current Springdale (i865) and Canterwood (i875) chipsets and gradually graduate to Socket 775 (some call Socket T) with the Grantsdale (successor to the i865) and Alderwood (successor to the i875) chipsets. Near the end of the year, Intel will also introduce its future core, Tejas. Grapevine has it that Tejas will have a larger L1 (Level 1) cache size, more integral Hyper-Threading support, multiple cores and, surprise, surprise, 64-bit x86 instructions. In addition, Intel has pledged to continue its Extreme Edition line so we can probably expect modified Prescott and Tejas cores as well.