Intel Pentium 4 2.2A (Northwood)

Author : Wayne Date : 4th March 2002

...Product	Pentium4 2.2A
...Manufacturer	Intel
...Supplier	Intel
...Price	£557.00 approx @ Scan

 

 

 

Demanding, impatient, fickle, we in the PC enthusiast sector of the market are guilty as charged but one thing we've got to be admired for is our willingness to take a chance and vote with our wallets. Intel have had a poor (by their standards) couple of years so far as the enthusiast is concerned primarily kick started when they chose to make their Pentium 4 and the unpopular Rambus memory bedfellows. It wasn't that Rambus was a bad technology, in fact it was the only technology that could take advantage of the massive bandwidth that the P4 brought to the table. No, the problem initially was that it was just too expensive, and although prices fell as you'd expect them to, Rambus had made the incredibly ill judged move of taking legal action against just about everybody that crossed its path. The upshot of this was that just as prices were finally becoming affordable the buying public had turned against what the company had become and the ethics that drove it.

Well, that was then and this is now and perhaps not surprisingly Rambus' image has scrubbed up nicely now that people are no longer obliged to buy it. Throw in a brace of alternative chipsets from SiS (the 845), VIA (the contentious P4X266/A) and indeed Intel's very own i845/D and we have the most flexible range of RDRAM, DDR and SDR platforms the Pentium 4 has ever had.

It's a new era for Intel who aim to take full advantage of their increasing popularity. The recently announced Northwood core looks set to restore faith amongst the enthusiast sector, and although this by far the least significant of Intel's markets they undoubtedly realise that the views of the hardcore hobbyists do eventually filter through to larger, more lucrative markets and that winning the hearts and minds of this sector ultimately shapes their long term plans.

So what's changed to suddenly make the Pentium 4 that much more enticing? Well, as I mentioned earlier the first step on the road to recovery was the introduction of new chipsets that allowed users to choose between RDRAM, 200/266 DDR SDRAM or even PC133 SDRAM . Even though Rambus probably still holds a slight performance edge, it was the ability to make an informed choice the unshackled the P4's potential in they eyes of the end user. Nobody like to have their options limited, even if they're options you'd never take advantage of.

The other advancements were down to price and technology. The price side of the equation is simple, as the technology ages so it gets more affordable, the technology changes however are what we'll be discussing today so let's take a look at the new Northwood core and see what it's all about.

 

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