Pentium 4 Reaches the Speed Limit
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Processor at 3.8GHz may mark the end of Intel's speed race.
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(InfoWorld) - Overclockers waged a battle of ice against fire last weekÂ in Taipei, pushing the performance limits of Intel's CPUs to 5GHz. The hobbyists, who are becoming an increasingly common sight at IT trade shows, are perfecting the art of pushing processors to their limits. "Overclocking is taking a basic system and modifying the settings to get more performance out of your system," said Fugger, a U.S. overclocker who like others prefers to go by a nickname. "We take a processor you can buy in the store, like we have here, and we're pushing these up to 4.6 or 4.7GHz," he said, indicating a couple of computer motherboards hooked up to cooling equipment designed to keep the processor below minus 100 degrees Celsius. The demonstration on the stand of Taiwanese motherboard maker AbitÂ used Intel Core 2 Quad processors that usually run at 2.66GHz. The speed of a processor is typically determined by two things: the speed of the interface that connects the chip to the rest of the computer (called the front-side bus) and a multiplier. For example, a 500MHz front-side bus and a multiplier of three means the chip runs at 1.5GHz. By changing these values the chip can be made to run faster. The result is not just more speed but lots of heat. Typically a processor is cooled with a large metal heat sink and fans, but that's not enough for overclocked chips so a more imaginative method is needed. "I have a pressurized 22 psi (pounds per square inch) liquid nitrogen cooler, we're feeding it through copper tubing through a stainless steel valve into a king-pin pot. This is a copper pot that sits on top of the processor and we actually feed the liquid nitrogen directly into the processor," said Fugger as a fellow overclocker from Sweden opened a valve and white clouds of vapor began to billow out of the system. The system, Fugger maintains, is quite safe and is one that he uses at home alongside more elaborate systems that rely on coupling two or three refrigeration compressors together to get the desired temperature. "We can bring the CPU down to minus 200 degrees Celsius but we usually keep it at minus 120," said Crotale, the Swedish overclocker, as he played with the system. "At a certain point the CPU becomes like a super conductor so it just shorts out the CPU. We need to keep it as close to that point as possible to get the maximum performance." A short walk away on the booth of Foxconn Electronics, the Taiwanese component maker, another overclocking demonstration was talking place. This one matched a local overclocker, who was pouring liquid nitrogen from a large bottle into an ice-crusted mug and then pouring that by hand over the processor, with Shimano, an overclocker from Singapore, who was using dry ice, or solid carbon dioxide. He was overclocking a 3GHz version of Intel's Core 2 Duo processor to speeds of around 5GHz. For the overclockers the thrill lies in the challenge of pushing chips and systems to their limits and the bragging rights that go along with the fastest system. For the industry there's something to be had out of this too. Overclockers routinely submit details of their systems and benchmark reports to Web sites like that run by FutureMark Corp., which ranks the results. "The gamers would go look to see what the top-ten listing would be," said Fugger. "So if they see Abit up there and NVidia up there, the chances are they are going to buy an Abit motherboard with an NVidia video card so it's critical that the manufacturers work with the enthusiasts. If you have a lot of rankings in the Future Mark, your products are going to sell a little easier." Once you've made your purchase there's a relatively low level of entry into the world of overclocking, said Shimano, the Singaporean overclocker. "Dry ice is cheap and all you need is a really good copper or aluminium container and you're on your way," he said, noting that good ventilation is important because of the carbon dioxide given off. "It's cool, it's fun, it's extremely exciting and you get to meet a lot of people with the same interest and others just keep spurring you on," he said. "You want to beat the other guy."ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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October unveiling alongside AMD dualie Athlon 64 FX
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Today sees the launch of both a new CPU and chipset from Intel. The CPU is a 3.46GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, which runs on a 1066MHz frontside bus (FSB), and 925XE chipset (codename Alderwood).
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Intel is targeting extreme gamers and power PC users with its latest high-performance platform based on the Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition and a faster system bus enabled by the 925XE Express chipset.
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keeleysam writes &quot;c|net news.com is reporting that Alienware is going to ship a 4GHz desktop. The new Area-51 ALX, introduced on Friday, uses overclocking, or the practice of pushing a processor past its factory
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Intel Corp. INTC.O on Thursday  canceled plans to introduce its highest-speed Pentium 4 chip  for desktop computers, marking another in a string of  unexpected product changes, cancellations and recalls at the  world's largest computer chip maker.
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Intel Corp.  on Thursday canceled plans to introduce its highest-speed desktop computer chip, ending for now a 25-year run that has seen the speeds of Intel's microprocessors increase by more than 750 times.
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Game system specialist revs up a new PC with a homegrown Pentium 4 that beats Intel to the 4GHz punch.
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Intel Corp. INTC.O on Thursday  canceled plans to introduce its highest-speed desktop computer  chip, ending for now a 25-year run that has seen the speeds of  Intel's microprocessors increase by more than 750 times.
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Intel has added a 3.46GHz processor to its Celeron D chip line up. The 65nm LGA775 part contains 512KB of L2 cache and operates across a 533MHz frontside bus. It supports 64-bit addressing and the execute-disable bit.â¦
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The world&#39;s largest chip maker, Intel, is changing its approach to making faster computer microprocessors. It has dropped plans to release a four gigahertz version of its flagship Pentium 4 chip.
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Intel Corp. is expected to release a faster version of its powerful but expensive Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processor on Monday alongside the introduction of a chipset that uses a faster front-side bus to connect the processor and the memory.
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Way back in June I suggested you hold off on buying a new PC until systems with PCI Express shipped. The new technology has the potential to dramatically improve performance because it replaces the pokey old
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Intel has released a new member of the Pentium M family. The Pentium M model 765 runs clocks in at 2.10GHz and has a 2MB cache, 400MHz system bus and other enhancements.
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Increasing front-side bus speed from 800 to 1,066 MHz addresses crucial bottleneck in system performance.
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Four-core coming AMD has grown tired of hearing about Intel's four-core Xeon wonders and so countered today with some faster Opterons and some lower-voltage ones. If you can't beat them with cores, beat them with variety.â¦