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<b>MISTAKE #1</b> - Small L1 data cache - I couldn't believe it myself when I first saw the results, but Intel's own statements confirm it. The Pentium 4 has a grossly under-sized 8K L1 data cache. That was the size of the L1 cache back in the 486, more than TEN YEARS AGO. Some idiots never learn. The L1 cache is the most important block of memory in the whole computer.
<b>MISTAKE #2</b> - No L3 cache - Intel originally specified a 1 megabyte L3 cache for the Pentium 4. This third level cache, much like a G4's back side cache or the large L2 cache in the Pentium III and Athlon, provides an extra level of fast memory to help keep the chip from having to access slow main memory. The L3 cache is completely removed in the released Pentium 4 chip. Like I said, some idiots at Intel never learn.
<b>MISTAKE #3</b> - Decoder is crippled - In another step back to 486 days of 10 years ago, Intel took a rather idiotic approach to the U-V pairing and 4-1-1 grouping limitations of past decoders. They simply eliminated the extra decoders and went back to a single decoder.
<b>MISTAKE # 4</b> - Fixed the partial register stall with a worse solution - While it is true that the partial register stall is finally a thing of the past in the
Pentium 4, Intel's solution is less than elegant. It is not only worse that AMD's solution, but actually worse than the problem it tries to fix. Accessing certain partial registers now involves the shift/rotate unit, meaning that a simple 8-bit register read or write can take longer than accessing L1 cache memory! It's backwards!
<b>MISTAKE #5</b> - Instructions take more clock cycles to complete - This is not so much a specific mistake as it is an overall side effect of the first 4 idiotic mistakes. The end result of all the cost cutting and silicon chopping is that typical code sequences now take more clock cycles to execute than on the P6 architecture. Intel relies on the much faster clock speed of the Pentium 4 to overcome this problem, but this only works against the Pentium III and slower Intel processors. Against the AMD Athlon, it loses badly.
<b>If it isn't clear already, the Pentium 4 is a terrible choice for PC users. It is a severely crippled processor that does not live up to its original design specifications. Its makes inefficient use of available transistors and chip space. It places a higher burden on software developers to optimize code, contrary to the trends being set by AMD and Transmeta processors. It reverts to 10 year old techniques which Intel abandoned and apparently forgot why. And it just plain runs slower than existing Pentium III, Celeron, and AMD Athlon chips.
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-- They have found a way to harness the power of a thunderstorm and expell it with great force!--
<b>MISTAKE #2</b> - No L3 cache - Intel originally specified a 1 megabyte L3 cache for the Pentium 4. This third level cache, much like a G4's back side cache or the large L2 cache in the Pentium III and Athlon, provides an extra level of fast memory to help keep the chip from having to access slow main memory. The L3 cache is completely removed in the released Pentium 4 chip. Like I said, some idiots at Intel never learn.
<b>MISTAKE #3</b> - Decoder is crippled - In another step back to 486 days of 10 years ago, Intel took a rather idiotic approach to the U-V pairing and 4-1-1 grouping limitations of past decoders. They simply eliminated the extra decoders and went back to a single decoder.
<b>MISTAKE # 4</b> - Fixed the partial register stall with a worse solution - While it is true that the partial register stall is finally a thing of the past in the
Pentium 4, Intel's solution is less than elegant. It is not only worse that AMD's solution, but actually worse than the problem it tries to fix. Accessing certain partial registers now involves the shift/rotate unit, meaning that a simple 8-bit register read or write can take longer than accessing L1 cache memory! It's backwards!
<b>MISTAKE #5</b> - Instructions take more clock cycles to complete - This is not so much a specific mistake as it is an overall side effect of the first 4 idiotic mistakes. The end result of all the cost cutting and silicon chopping is that typical code sequences now take more clock cycles to execute than on the P6 architecture. Intel relies on the much faster clock speed of the Pentium 4 to overcome this problem, but this only works against the Pentium III and slower Intel processors. Against the AMD Athlon, it loses badly.
<b>If it isn't clear already, the Pentium 4 is a terrible choice for PC users. It is a severely crippled processor that does not live up to its original design specifications. Its makes inefficient use of available transistors and chip space. It places a higher burden on software developers to optimize code, contrary to the trends being set by AMD and Transmeta processors. It reverts to 10 year old techniques which Intel abandoned and apparently forgot why. And it just plain runs slower than existing Pentium III, Celeron, and AMD Athlon chips.
</b>
-- They have found a way to harness the power of a thunderstorm and expell it with great force!--