p4 and the new p4 style celeron? p4? wats tha diff?

[rant]

i was just curious as to the difference between pentium 4's and pentium 4 style celerons??



Thanx

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

The new celeron is based on the willamette (probably spelled it wrong) core, and it still only has 128k of cache...basicaly a castrated P4 "willy". it DOES have the sse2 instructions, so in theory, it should outperform a PIII cellie at the same speed (provided that the app being used takes advantage of sse2 instructions).
This would be a good budget cpu to get your feet wet in the P4 world without having to spend a lot of cash...and give you a straight upgrade path....of course I suspect that both Intel and AMD will want to use a new socket design soon.:confused:
Since socket 7, all socket/slot designs have lasted only about two years before they came up with something new, and I think the trend will continue.
By the time I'm ready to go to the P4, they will probably come up with a P5 (which will actualy be a P8? core), and thus a new socket design.
I hope I'm wrong on the socket thing...but I fear I'm not.

[batboy]

Doc is correct. The first P-4's introduced were the Willamettes with 256k cache. They ran hot and were not all that good for overclocking. The Celeron P-4 CPUs are based on the old Willamette core except Intel castrated the cache down to 128k. For only a little more cash, you can get a 1.6a or 1.8a Northwood P-4 that are so much better (they have 512k cache).

It's like the old 486SX that had a crippled math co-processor. The illiterate computer masses who wanted to upgrade from their old 286 computer, looked at the 486DX and saw a high price tag and then saw the cheaper, slower 486SX and bought them instead not realizing it was just a glorified 386. But, they could still brag that they had a 486 system.

It's the same story today, the OEM makers will advertise a system with "blazing fast P-4 power" and the unknowning public will get a P-4 Celeron. Real geeks avoid the Willamette like the plague.

[Darth_Malice]

basically think about it like this... a celeron is the same thing as a p4 except with half the cache! So theoretically when intel introduces a celeron on the enw northwood core(denoted by an "A") then it would be like the old pentium 4's based on the willamette core... (the reasoning being that the northwood core has 512k cache... so half would be 256... and the willamette has 256cache....) curiously i wonder if northwood celeron's would overclock as well as northwood p4's...