intel pentium 4 & dual core & level 1 cache

[sonoma1993]

Isnt intel level 1 cache around 32 or 64k? Why hasnt intel ever increase their lvl 1 cache to 128k like the amd has done to the athlon 64? im assuming if intel did goto a 128k+ lvl 1 cache it would help improve it performace.

 

[BitByBit]

The P4 Prescott has a 16KB L1 Data Cache, and a 12,000-entry Trace Cache.
The reason the P4 has such a small D-Cache is to allow it to hit high clock speeds without having to drag along a large cache, which falls inline with the P4's low IPC, high clock speed philosophy.

 

[sonoma1993]

if intel ever did increase the 16kb data cache to ever 64k, im assuming it would help improve it performance by like 10% maybe? im all for intel and amd to increase performance out of there product for the competition

 

[BitByBit]

I doubt the P4 would benefit much from a larger L1. Intel had to relax the access latency of the D-Cache when they doubled its size, presumably to prevent it from hindering its clock speed potential.
A smaller, faster L1 that can be updated very quickly seems to suit the P4 better than a larger, slower one. This is probably one of the reasons Prescott has a slightly lower IPC average than Northwood; its D-Cache was doubled in size, but its latency was increased four-fold.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Well, its probably more of a design constraint and the pressure to release a CPU with reasonable die size than anything. Original Willamette was supposed to have half the size L2 cache, but 1MB L3 cache on a slot like Pentium II's did, plus full performance FPU, but they scaled it down.