Intel´s new 64-bit P4s

A Pentium 4 6xx processor die

It took Intel many years to finally start to catch up with AMD in the 64-bit processor space with its new Pentium4 6xx Series. A new processor will always generate a lot of buzz in the tech world, but is this one going to make your tech life better or just more expensive?

The Pentium 4 6xx Series has several highlights: • It has 64-bit addressing (EMT64) • The cache size has doubled to 2MB • Power saving features

64-bit sounds obviously better than 32-bit, but in reality most users won't care for at least a few years. The main advantage of 64-bit is that the CPU can use much larger amounts of memory. We are talking about more than 4GB of RAM here. It's very nice in the long run, but in the short term, consumers won't really care until they have PCs and Applications that use this kind of memory. Professionals will be the first to benefit of it, if they have applications that uses it.

2MB of cache seems also really good, and it is, to some extend. However, doubling the cache does not double the performance. It's even far from that. It gives an edge for absolute performance, but decreases the performance/$ ratio (bang for the buck).

Power saving features is very desirable on laptops and high-end servers. It's hard to argue against having a more efficient processor. As long as it doesn't cost more, it's a welcome addition. I suspect that this will not make users' life any better, however.

This is a quite interesting step from Intel, and some professionals (and gamers) will probably embrace the new Pentium 4 660. I don't think that the P4 660 ($605) it is very attractive for consumers, but the P4 630 ($224) might be.

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