| CPU manufacturing is one of the most competitive | | | | pushes and base 200MHz which results with 800MHz |
| areas of computer world. In the end, the overall | | | | FSB like the new P4. |
| performance of your laptop or your desktop | | | | The numbers you would see under the name |
| depends on your central processing unit. Parallel to | | | | "Micron" in a CPU comparison table is basically the size |
| the demands of the users, we can say that CPUs | | | | of the transistors. As the number get smaller, the |
| traveled a long way from 386s to P4s and AMDs. | | | | manufacturers can put more and more on the CPU |
| The cache is generally the most decisive factor in the | | | | die. The smaller transistors you have on your CPU, |
| tradeoff equation between the price and | | | | the smaller the CPU die becomes. The smaller the |
| performance. Considering the L2 cache on some of | | | | CPU die, less power is required and less heat is |
| the chips, you can easily understand that Athlon, P4 | | | | produced. |
| and PIII, having 256K or more L2 cache are the once | | | | The CPU instruction set is the total code which tells |
| with higher performance, in other words power chips. | | | | your CPU how to process its data. The more sets |
| Looking at the budget chips, you immediately notice | | | | you have on your CPU, the more efficient it is most |
| that Celeron has 128K and the Duron only has 64K. | | | | likely to be. However, on this point Intel (Pentium) |
| Celeron is actually almost like a PIII with half the | | | | and AMD does not follow the same path. Intel made |
| cache disabled. These numbers shows that the main | | | | the first attempt to improve the basic instruction set |
| budget issue for CPU manufacturers is to put enough | | | | by adding the MMX support for multimedia. |
| cash on the chip. | | | | The difference's between the CPU's are getting |
| You should consider the difference between the bus | | | | smaller as each company sees the advantages of |
| speeds: in the case of Athlon and P4, the bus speed | | | | their rivals technology and tries to either use or |
| between the Cache and the CPU can be 200 or 400 | | | | emulate it. It is really hard to choose which one is |
| MHz respectively. This can give your system a major | | | | better. So a good advice would be let your wallet |
| boost when you are using cache intensive utilities. | | | | decide which CPU your system will use. |
| The new CPUs are coming out with quad speed | | | | |