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