February 1, 2004

Systems using the new Intel Pentium 4 with SSE3 instructions – code named Prescott have started to be released. This early batch of chips uses the same motherboards and socket interface as existing 478 pin Pentium 4 chips. Later this year they will switch to a new pinless format in conjunction with new chipsets. Intel’s plans to release two chipsets to support their new CPUs, the mainstream 915 and the higher performance 925X chipsets. Anandtech notes that neither will support AGP video, rather they will only support the newer, not yet released PCI Express format. Perhaps as a result VIA has announced that they will support both AGP and PCI Express throughout 2004. If you ever intent to upgrade your CPU buying a Prescott CPU before the introduction of the new pinless format seems to be too limiting in upgrade opportunities, its believed the fastest chips released in the 478 pin format will be 3.40 GHz. Update: ExtremeTech reports mixed results in comparing the Prescott against existing CPUs. Expect every computer site to have more reviews soon. 3:32:10 PM