Intel "hyper-threading" to debut soon
C|Net | at | by Mike
Intel's "hyper-threading" technology for boosting chip performance will debut soon with its first server versions of the Pentium 4 chip, the chipmaker said Wednesday. Hyper-threading makes a single CPU act in some ways like two chips, but because there's still only one patch of high-speed cache memory and one connection to the rest of the computer, performance isn't the same as with a true dual-processor server.
Hyper-threading will appear later this quarter on two models of Intel's Xeon chip, a close relative of the Pentium 4 that has various improvements geared for high-end networked server computers. The first Xeon, for lower-end systems, is code-named Prestonia and works in two-processor servers; the second, code-named Foster MP, is for more powerful multiprocessor models, said Shannon Poulin, marketing manager for Intel's enterprise systems.