Intel to Introduce Another Pentium 4 Stepping

Intel recently issued a document concerning Pentium 4 processor product change notification. According to the document, the core of the CPU will soon be a bit redesigned and its stepping will be changed to D-1, from the current C-1.

The following changes will be made:

Based on the facts above, I can assume that all the Pentium 4 processors with 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus and the Hyper-Threading technology will be based on the newer core-stepping D-1. Nevertheless, there is a quite strange piece of information published in the document. Apparently, the first 3.06GHz Pentium 4 processors based on the D-1 core are scheduled to be available on the 9th of May, while the 2.80GHz and below CPUs are set to come on the 27th of June. Intel will start to send samples of the D-1 chips on April, 25, 2003, according to the document. On the other hand, we learnt from our sources some time ago that the first processor to support 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus, Intel Pentium 4 3.20GHz, will be unveiled in the second half of April (see this news-story), not in the first half of May, as it is said in the document. Moreover, according to our sources, microprocessors with 800MHz QPB will take up to 20% share of all Pentium 4 chips shipped (see this news-story) in the second quarter. In the third quarter Intel will be shipping up to 35% of its CPUs for the new 800MHz bus already, while by the last quarter of 2003 the share of Pentium 4 processors for 800MHz bus will reach 60%. Everything in our information points out Intel???￡r intention to aggressively ramp the number of 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus-supporting chips on the market, but 3.20GHz Pentium 4 products are expected to cost more than $500 per chip, hence, it is hardly possible to flood the market with such processors. Either Intel has changed its plans by now, or we should expect other product change notifications, where the company will unveil some other plans in regards volume launch of 800MHz-supporting CPUs.

Note that all processors have multiply VIDs and by now Intel has added 1.55V Vcore for the high-end chips. The move should help the company to increase the yield of its fast microprocessors, thus, there will be more such CPUs on the market. Given that after the Pentium 4 3.20GHz product launch Intel also plans to reduce the prices, the demand on 3.06GHz chips will rise and it seems that implementing 1.55V VID is the only way to boost the number of chips capable of running at 3.06GHz and possibly 3.20GHz and 3.40GHz core-clocks.

Source : x-bit labs