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- Deeply Pipelined Core
- Double-Pumped ALU (arithmetical logic unit)
- Execution Trace Cache (a fancy L1 cache)
- Advanced Dynamic Execution (128 byte cache lines)
- 144 New Instructions
- Enhanced Floating Point/Multimedia
- 3.2 GB/sec Bus
One of the biggest Achilles heels for current WINTEL PC's has been the limitations that go with a 100/133MHz system BUS. For Willamette, Intel has chosen an RDRAM-based platform and a Quad-pumped 100MHz bus (they call it a 400MHz system BUS). At this new rate, the bus will be able to transfer information from the processor to the rest of the system three times faster than the current 133MHz ceiling of PCs based on Pentium IIIs. Along with the new season of The Sopranos, this has got to be some of the best news I've heard so far this year. Whilst so many technical advances have been made to the PC in the last twelve months, the current 133MHz bus speed has been one of the last drawbacks when it comes to multimedia apps, which are particularly data dependant. Good riddance I say….
- 3.2 Gbyte/Sec data transfer rate
-source synchronous 64-bit data bus
-400MHz quad pumped data bus (running at 100Mhz)
- split transaction, deeply pipelined bus
- 128-byte lines with 64 byte accesses
The FPU power of the Willamette will depend on just what game developers and ISV's make of the 144 new instructions that go with SSE2. Support will inevitably take time (remember how long it took MMX and Pod to spread?) but we know of several game developers already implementing SSE2 support into their games (more on this another time). Gamers will be particularly pleased to hear that Willamette will debut with SSE2 (streaming SIMD Extensions 2) and 144 new instructions, which extend MMX (64-bit extended to 128-bit) and SSE to 128-bit SIMD integer arithmetic and double precision floating point. From a CAD perspective, doubling the SIMD integer should, in theory, show some real dividends. Workstations based upon two IA-32 processors (code named "Foster") and the Willamette architecture should excite workstation buffs.
Game developers can also sigh in relief (Intel's Willamette SDK is due to be released very shortly), SSE2 instructions are mostly compatible with a wide range of current software optimized for the Pentium III's SSE. Simply put SSE2 supports the same data types found in older software.
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