Desktop roadmap Intel has cancelled the 3.63GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, originally due to ship early Q4 2004, according to roadmap information released this week.

As we reported yesterday, the chip giant's latest roadmaps push the first 90nm P4EE out to early Q1 2005. Last August, the 3.73GHz part was scheduled to ship late Q4 2004, after the release of the 3.63GHz version, the latter fabbed at 130nm like existing P4EE parts.

Killing off the 3.63GHz chip means that Intel will introduce its 1066MHz frontside bus with the 90nm chip, itself derived from the 'Prescott' Pentium 4, but loaded with 2MB of L2 cache. Current P4EE's are based on Xeon CPUs and incorporated 2MB of L3 cache in addition to 512KB of L2.

The latest roadmap data, courtesy of Japan's reliable PC Watch, confirms yesterday's suggestion that the 90nm P4EE will support Intel's AMD64-like 64-bit addressing technology, EM64T.

So too will the Pentium 4 6xx series, still due to debut early Q1 2005. These too sport 2MB of L2 and are clocked from 3.2GHz to 3.6GHz (630 to 660). That leaves the 1066MHz FSB and the fractionally higher clock frequency as the 90nm P4EE's only distinguishing feature. Both chip lines will use the 775-pin, Socket T infrastructure, and support Intel's Execute Disable Bit, but the 6xx parts will also use SpeedStep to rein in heat dissipation.

Come Q2 2005 and Intel will ship a 3.8GHz P4 670, leaving only the faster bus speed to give the P4EE the performance lead.

Again, as reported yesterday, the dual-core Prescott, 'Smithfield', will ship early Q3 2005, in 2.8, 3.0 and 3.2GHz forms. Smithfield-based P4EEs no longer seem part of Intel's game plan, at least in 2005.

By mid-2005, Socket 478 90nm P4s, will have gone, joining the 130nm versions, which are scheduled for late 2004 termination. Gone too will be the short-lived 3.8GHz P4 570, which is still to be launched, the 2.8GHz 520 and the remaining 130nm Celerons.

In addition to the P4 570, this year should also see the arrival of 3.06GHz 90nm Celerons: two 345 parts, one for Socket T, the other for Socket 478. Both are scheduled to be followed late in Q2 2005 by 3.2GHz Celeron 350s. ®

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