3-2 www.hp.com Technical Reference Guide
Processor/Memory Subsystem
3.2 Intel Processors
These systems each feature an Intel processor in a FC-LGA775 package mounted with a heat
sink in a zero-insertion force socket. The mounting socket allows the processor to be easily
changed for upgrading.
3.2.1 Intel Processor Overview
The models covered in this guide support Intel Celeron, Pentium, and Core 2 processors,
including the latest Intel Core 2 Duo, and Core 2 Quad processors.
Key features of supported Intel processors include:
■ Dual- or quad-core architecture—Provides full parallel processing.
■ Hyper-Threading Technology—Featured in some Intel Pentium and Core Processors, the
main processing loop has twice the depth (20 stages) of earlier processors allowing for
increased processing frequencies.
■ Execution Trace Cache— A new feature supporting the branch prediction mechanism, the
trace cache stores translated sequences of branching micro-operations ( ops) and is checked
when suspected re-occurring branches are detected in the main processing loop. This feature
allows instruction decoding to be removed from the main processing loop.
■ Rapid Execution Engine—Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) run at twice (2x) processing
frequency for higher throughput and reduced latency.
■ Up to 8-MB of L2 cache—Using a 32-byte-wide interface at processing speed, the large L2
cache provides a substantial increase.
■ Advanced dynamic execution—Using a larger (4K) branch target buffer and improved
prediction algorithm, branch mis-predictions are significantly reduced
■ Additional Streaming SIMD extensions (SSE2 andSSE3)—In addition to the SSE support
provided by previous Pentium processors, the Pentium 4 processor includes an additional
144 MMX instructions, further enhancing:
❏ Streaming video/audio processing
❏ Photo/video editing
❏ Speech recognition
❏ 3D processing
❏ Encryption processing
■ Quad-pumped Front Side Bus (FSB)—The FSB uses a 200-MHz clock for qualifying the
buses' control signals. However, address information is transferred using a 2x strobe while
data is transferred with a 4x strobe, providing a maximum data transfer rate that is four times
that of earlier processors.
The Intel processor increases processing speed by using higher clock speeds with
hyper-pipelined technology, therefore handling significantly more instructions at a time. The
Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) of all processors listed above run at twice the core speed.
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