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Intel to add VT to P4 in Q4

We give directions to the chip giant

Roadmap A little advice for Intel: roll out versions of the 90nm Pentium 4 6xx series with your Virtualisation Technology (VT) in Q4.

Come on, Intel, you know it makes sense. You've said VT will appear on the desktop before it ships in server processors, and Q4 is a good time to do so before all those 65nm, VT-enabled server chips come on stream in Q1 2006.

We'd recommend at least a pair of VT-enabled 90nm P4s, clocked at 3.6GHz and 3.8GHz. It would be a good idea to give them slightly different model numbers, to distinguish them from the recently released, VT-less 6x1 P4s - how about the 662 and the 672?

Then, when 65nm single-core parts P4 ship in Q1 2006, you can call number those chips 6x3 - perfect. How about the 633, 643, 654 and 663? You can clock them at 3.0, 3.2, 3.4 and 3.6GHz, respectively, but stick with the 800MHz frontside bus for now, OK? You'll have chips you can use, the already announced 'Cedar Mill' single-core 65nm desktop part.

You can't ship a bunch of single-core processors without updating the dual-core Pentium D line-up, of course, not with world+dog starting to bite on all the multi-core marketing coming from yourselves, AMD and IBM. So chuck out four 65nm PDs, would you? You could clock them at... let's think... 2.8, 3.0, 3.2 and 3.4GHz, and call them the Pentium D 920, 930, 940 and 950, just to separate them out from today's 90nm dualies 8xx series.

Like the 6x2 and 6x3 P4s, you can add VT to the 9x0 PDs. We'd use those 'Presler' 65nm dualies you've got up your sleeve, if we were you. Naturally, you'll make sure they all have 64-bit, Execute Disable Bit and SpeedStep support, won't you?

Oh, and just in case everyone forgets about the 64-bit Celeron D line, you can add a 3.33GHz part - call it the 355; 355 is a good number - in Q4 just to keep them on their toes.

Got all that, Intel. We'll be calling in Q4 to see if you took our advice. ®

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