Intel announced a new version of the Pentium 4 processor on Tuesday with an extra dose of cache, a move that seems calculated to undercut the launch of the Athlon64 from Advanced Micro Devices next week.
The Pentium 4 Extreme Edition will run at 3.2GHz and come with 2MB of level-three cache, said Louis Burns, executive vice president of the desktop platform group at Intel. Current Pentium 4 chips come with a 512KB secondary cache and no level-three cache. Increasing caches, reservoirs of memory located on the processor, typically boost performance.
Computer makers will begin to sell PCs with the chip in the next 30 to 60 days, Burns said.
Read more: CNet News.