New
Micro Architecture "NetBurst"
Netburst is the name for Intel's new microprocessor architecture.
In order to maintain the a stability in the fast growing PC market, every
3 - 4 years Intel’s develops a totally new microprocessor architecture. The
last architecture Intel released was the P6 Micro Architecture, first introduced
with the Pentium Pro back in 1995.
The P6 architecture was a great design until we reached the 1GHz
mark at which point this design was pushing its limits on reaching higher
peaks. You might remember the famous Pentium III 1.13GHz recall that took
place last August. The reason behind this was simple, Intel pushed the P6
design to far, and stability problems immediately began.
In November 2000, Intel officially launched their newest Architecture
named NetBurst; this was introduced with the launch of the Pentium 4 processor,
the first ever IA-32 processor to take advantage of it. NetBurst includes
the fallowing innovations.
Hyper Pipelined Technology
 |
In order to deliver the highest clock
rates, the Pentium 4 features a pipeline twice as big as the one on the Pentium
III (10). The original Pentium processor, which was based on the P5 architecture,
featured a total of 5 stages. Intel doubled that number on the P6 architecture,
this of course covering the latest Pentium III and the first ever CPU introduced
on that architecture, the Pentium Pro which featured a total of 10 Pipelines.
Intel doubled that number again with their latest architecture (NetBurst);
the Pentium 4 features a total of 20 Pipelines. The 20 pipeline allowed Intel
to start the Pentium 4 at 1.4GHz+ using the same .18 technology that they
use to produce the Pentium III (Coppermine) Processor. With their upcoming
move to the .13 process, we will be able to see the NetBurst architecture
going beyond 2GHz. The 20-stage pipeline is what Intel calls
their Hyper Pipelined Technology. 
