what is stepping?

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i9-9999k

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first let me introduce the thread by saying i have a dell dimension 2400 bluford mobo with the intel 845gv gmch/chipset and pga478b cpu socket

i have a couple cpus that will work in this socket: 2 different stepping 2.2 ghz p4 and a 2.4 ghz celeron

on this page it shows all the different steppings for the 2.2 ghz p4: Intel Pentium 4 2.2 GHz - RK80532PC049512 / BX80532PC2200D

here is one of the ones i have: http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SL6PL.html
... and the other http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SL5YS.html
so a B0 vs a D1 stepping... what is the difference and is one better than the other?

from the looks of it these chips pull about 60 watts of power, is this already pushing the cpu vrm limits or do i have some headroom to upgrade to a 3.06 ghz p4 that pulls 80 watts Intel Pentium 4 3.06 GHz - RK80532PE083512 / BX80532PE3066D

that 3.06 ghz p4 is the best cpu i can get at 533 mhz fsb, since the 845gv chipset supports a maximum fsb of 533 mhz, is that the best cpu i can get? or can i get a 800 mhz fsb cpu and it'll scale it down to 533? if that's the case i could get this 3.4 ghz 90 watt p4 Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHz - RK80532PG096512 / BX80532PG3400D but that's probably really pushing the vrm on the dell bluford motherboard

here's a picture of my two different 2.2 ghz pentium 4s
iYwU5Zn.jpg
 
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Pinhedd

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Hi,

Steppings are minor revisions to microprocessors. While the introduction of new steppings is incredibly common during development, they can still occur after release.

Here are some examples of what post-release steppings can do

1. Reduce power consumption

2. Fix bugs that can only be fixed through a hardware revision (for example, the VT-d bug in C1 stepping Sandybridge-E microprocessors was fixed in the C2 revision)

3. Introduce new features. The XD bit was introduced midway through the Pentium 4 Prescott's lifecycle as a stepping revision, as were C states (idle states).

4. Improve timing performance. This can be used to introduce higher speed SKUs as well as improve overclocking.
 
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i9-9999k

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i kind of assumed it was minor revisions of the same cpu, but the OP was more steered towards the specific differences between the two pentium 4s i have. any idea?
 
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Pinhedd

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In that case, you need to look at the SKUs.

The one on the left is SL5YS and the one on the right is SL6PL.

The SL5YS is a second generation Pentium 4 microprocessor of the Northwood microarchitecture. It's fabricated using 130nm lithography, supports up to SSE2, and uses the LGA-478 socket. This is the B0 stepping of that microprocessor

The SL6PL is the same microprocessor in the D1 stepping, which is the third commercially available after the B0 and C1 steppings.

My understanding of the D1 stepping is that it's based on a newer design with a faster FSB, more granular VID, and HT support. On that particular microprocessor stepping, the FSB is reduced and HT is disabled to keep it in line with its orignal release variant that did not have those features. The same chip is used for the Northwood HT product line.

Since the FSB is natively 800 MT/s on the second microprocessor and 400 MT/s on the first it's possible that the one on the right may overclock better
 
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i9-9999k

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hey pinhedd, thanks to you i found some more information

i read this the other day after reading your post http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/p4-2400c-oc.html

so the sad thing is i cannot take advantage of the better overclockability of the d1 because i'm using a dell motherboard, it's sad really because the cpu is currently using a 100 MHz fsb (400 MT/s) when it in fact can run a much faster bus

also what i don't understand is if this d1 stepping supports hyperthreading, why isn't it utilizing it in my setup? the 845gv chipset supports it

ps i do want to correct you on one thing: it doesn't use a land grid array, it uses a pin grid array. the difference is the pins being on the cpu and not the motherboard in the case of pga
 
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Pinhedd

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You're right, it is PGA, that was just a force of habit on my part. I owned several Socket 478 motherboards but I'm just used to LGA-775 and newer discussions.

As for why you cannot use Hyperthreading even though its present on the D1 stepping, it's disabled in hardware. Integrated circuit manufacturers often use the same design for more than one marketed product. By the same note, they may use more than one design for the same marketed product.

A good example of this is the Sandybridge series of microprocessors. Intel used a grand total of five different die configurations to fill over 150 different microprocessors for different market segments.

One quad-core design served all desktop i7 and i5 microprocessors, some i3 microprocessors, and all quad core xeon microprocessors.

One dual-core design served some of the desktop i3 microprocessors and i5 mobile microprocessors, as well as some dual core xeon microprocessors.

One dual-core design served all of the low end mobile i3 microprocessors.

One quad-core design served the i7-3820k and quad core Xeon microprocessors on the LGA-2011 platform.

One octal-core design served the i7-3930k, i7-3960x, i7-3970x, and all octal and hex core Xeon microprocessors.

Some of the i3 microprocessors may have been sourced from either a quad-core die (the first one) or a dual-core die (second or third one). Which doesn't matter as long as the performance characteristics and power consumption meet the marketing requirements.

What Intel did with that Pentium 4 series is discontinue production of the B0 and C1 steppings when the D1 stepping became available. However, they did not discontinue the Northwood product line when they introduced the Northwood HT product line. Instead, they took Northwood HT dies (The D1 steppings), disabled the extra features for yield or marketing reasons, and sold them as Northwood microprocessors.
 
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