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Intel Celeron to gain improved AMD64 compatibility
A lot less lead in its pencil, too
Intel's desktop Celeron D chips are to be the latest processors to get the chip giant's NetBurst core update, The Register has learned.
According to Intel documentation, Celeron model numbers 326, 331, 336, 341, 346 and 351 will switch from today's E-0 core to the updated G-1 core on 2 December.
The G-1 core stepping will not only be compliant with European Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) regulations, courtesy of a "lead-free second level interconnect", but add two new instructions to Intel's AMD64-like EM64T 64-bit addressing system.
Intel is adding the LAHF and SAHF AMD64 instructions to its own 64-bit instruction set architecture. It has been alleged that they were missing from the original EM64T specification because the AMD documents used by Intel's engineers pre-dated AMD's addition of the two mnemonics.
LAHF and SAHF two instructions copy content back and forth between a 64-bit x86 processor's status flags and its AH register.
Intel has already told customers it is adding LAHF and SAHF to certain Pentium 4 and Xeon DP processors. The P4s arrive on 14 November, the Xeons on 28 November.
The new-core chips are pin-compatible with old-core Celeron Ds, Intel said, but the new processors will require host systems to have their BIOS code updated. ®
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