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is there any dual p4 board? I am not talking about dual p4 xeon.

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chrisbest01

Senior member
i just haven't able to find any dual p4 board. i talk to someone on irc and he said he is using a dual p4, not xeon. I am not sure if he is lying or i am just out dated.

 


<< IIRC, Normal P4's are not SMP enabled, so that they can charge the piss out of you if you want SMP. >>

Actually, the new northwoods are SMP enabled, but Intel is directing mainboard manufacturers not to release dual-socket 478 boards.
 
I've never heard of one, like Colt45 said I don't believe P4's are SMP capable unless you get the Xeon version. It may simply be a matter of chipset support, but I dunno.

Viper GTS <-- Content with dual AMD for now, but dual Northwood would be sweet...
 
Neither the Willamette or Northwood Pentium 4s are SMP capable. Even if they were, the i845 and i850 chipsets have no SMP logic either.
 
You would need to get an i860 board if you wanted to run dual Northwoods. There are no i845 or i850 motherboads with two 478-pin sockets, and therefore you wouldn't be able to run two processors, not to mention that they aren't SMP enabled anyway.

The only Northwoods that are SMP enabled are the 603-pin versions, with the i860 as the only support.
 


<< Neither the Willamette or Northwood Pentium 4s are SMP capable. Even if they were, the i845 and i850 chipsets have no SMP logic either. >>

The dies on the northwood and prestonia are exactly the same. There is simply no i860 mainboard with dual 478 sockets.
 


<<

<< Neither the Willamette or Northwood Pentium 4s are SMP capable. Even if they were, the i845 and i850 chipsets have no SMP logic either. >>

The dies on the northwood and prestonia are exactly the same. There is simply no i860 mainboard with dual 478 sockets. >>

That's incorrect, all Prestonia (Xeons) are 603-pin processors, not 478-pin. All i860 boards are outifitted with two 603-pin sockets.
 
"Neither the Willamette or Northwood Pentium 4s are SMP capable. Even if they were, the i845 and i850 chipsets have no SMP logic either."

Might want to shoot an email to VIA and tell them that. VIA's P4X333 has planned P4 SMP capabilities. Northwood is SMP capable.

http://www.theddrzone.com/news.asp?id=459
 
"That's incorrect, all Prestonia (Xeons) are 603-pin processors, not 478-pin. All i860 boards are outifitted with two 603-pin sockets."

I think you misunderstood him. The Northwood and Prestonia are the same CPU with different pin-outs. If a company released an i860 with dual 478 sockets it would allow Northwood SMP setups.

Pulled this off of X-bit:

"As you can see, the only difference between the flags of the Willamette and Northwood processors is the support of On-chip APIC hardware implemented in the new core. It implies that Pentium 4 based on Northwood core supports SMP configurations. Pentium 4 CPUs do not officially support dual-processor configurations, however, it looks as if Intel decided to save some money and trouble another time. The matter is that Pentium 4 (Northwood) and Xeon (Prestonia) turn one and the same processor designed in different form-factors. Pentium 4 (Northwood) is designed for Socket478 while Xeon (Prestonia) - for Socket603. Intel believes that this will prevent the new Pentium 4 CPUs from being used in dual-processor systems, since all dual-processor mainboards go equipped with Socket603. However, if it goes on like that, some mainboard manufacturer, which doesn't work too closely with Intel, will very soon release some dual-Socket478 mainboards."
 


<< "That's incorrect, all Prestonia (Xeons) are 603-pin processors, not 478-pin. All i860 boards are outifitted with two 603-pin sockets."

I think you misunderstood him. The Northwood and Prestonia are the same CPU with different pin-outs. If a company released an i860 with dual 478 sockets it would allow Northwood SMP setups.

Pulled this off of X-bit:

"As you can see, the only difference between the flags of the Willamette and Northwood processors is the support of On-chip APIC hardware implemented in the new core. It implies that Pentium 4 based on Northwood core supports SMP configurations. Pentium 4 CPUs do not officially support dual-processor configurations, however, it looks as if Intel decided to save some money and trouble another time. The matter is that Pentium 4 (Northwood) and Xeon (Prestonia) turn one and the same processor designed in different form-factors. Pentium 4 (Northwood) is designed for Socket478 while Xeon (Prestonia) - for Socket603. Intel believes that this will prevent the new Pentium 4 CPUs from being used in dual-processor systems, since all dual-processor mainboards go equipped with Socket603. However, if it goes on like that, some mainboard manufacturer, which doesn't work too closely with Intel, will very soon release some dual-Socket478 mainboards." >>

Exactly. I've read that as well.
 


<< "Neither the Willamette or Northwood Pentium 4s are SMP capable. Even if they were, the i845 and i850 chipsets have no SMP logic either."

Might want to shoot an email to VIA and tell them that. VIA's P4X333 has planned P4 SMP capabilities. Northwood is SMP capable.

http://www.theddrzone.com/news.asp?id=459 >>

Northwood might be SMP capable, but there's no way VIA has any legal right to release a chipset that supports dual P4's. Btw, did you see that little asterisk above "Support for Dual CPU's" in VIA roadmap you linked to? Nothing is definite....
 


<< Neither the Willamette or Northwood Pentium 4s are SMP capable. Even if they were, the i845 and i850 chipsets have no SMP logic either. >>

The dies on the northwood and prestonia are exactly the same. There is simply no i860 mainboard with dual 478 sockets.
 
"Northwood might be SMP capable, but there's no way VIA has any legal right to release a chipset that supports dual P4's."

Are you trying to imply VIA has gone through at least partial development of the chipset and put it on their roadmap without knowing whether or not the Northwood has SMP capabilities? That would completely moronic to put it nicely. VIA never has a license for anything Intel. Hasn't stopped them in the past. They apparently draw amusement from getting sued by Intel every time they release a new Intel platform then cutting a deal.

"Btw, did you see that little asterisk above "Support for Dual CPU's" in VIA roadmap you linked to?"

I assume you have some insight as to what that asterick is for if you're making that comment. Might be nothing more than footnote stating P4 is a registered trademark of the Intel Corp. Who knows.

"Nothing is definite..."

That I will agree with.
 


<< "Northwood might be SMP capable, but there's no way VIA has any legal right to release a chipset that supports dual P4's."

Are you trying to imply VIA has gone through at least partial development of the chipset and put it on their roadmap without knowing whether or not the Northwood has SMP capabilities? That would completely moronic to put it nicely. VIA never has a license for anything Intel. Hasn't stopped them in the past. They apparently draw amusement from getting sued by Intel every time they release a new Intel platform then cutting a deal. >>



If the 478-pin Northwood (desktop) processor is SMP capable, then VIA could definitely make an illegal dual capable chipset. However, I never even implied that VIA would develop a dual capable chipset if VIA themselves didn't know if Northwood was SMP capable. You seem to like to insult people with demeaning comments for some reason.

"Btw, did you see that little asterisk above "Support for Dual CPU's" in VIA roadmap you linked to?"

I assume you have some insight as to what that asterick is for if you're making that comment. Might be nothing more than footnote stating P4 is a registered trademark of the Intel Corp. Who knows.

Which is exactly why my next sentence stated Nothing is definite. As in it's not certain that VIA will produce a dual capable NW chipset (the reason the asterisk is there maybe?).
 
I don't see the point in offering a dual p4 board. The Intel Xeons aren't priced high like the P3 Xeons were. If you buy two 2.2 GHz P4 chips it will cost about $100 less than two 2.2 GHz Xeon chips. That is about a 10% difference in price. Add in the costs of the motheboards, memory, video card, case, and other components and a dual 2.2 GHz Xeon is only about 5% more expensive than this hypothetical dual 2.2 GHz P4 machine.

I just don't see any great demand - and neither do most motherboard manufacturers. Will VIA have to cut every corner to make the price difference greater? Ex: will they limit the maximum memory or disable hyper-threading or something else? They can skimp everywhere and get the price difference more than $100, but then it might not be a good option anymore.

Things were different in the P3 days: a dual Xeon machine cost about $600 more than a dual P3 machine.
 


<< >>

Northwood might be SMP capable, but there's no way VIA has any legal right to release a chipset that supports dual P4's. Btw, did you see that little asterisk above "Support for Dual CPU's" in VIA roadmap you linked to? Nothing is definite....[/i] >>



Well Intel still claims VIA has no legal license to release ANY P4 chipset, let alone a dual processor P4 supporting chipset. Intel's sued VIA... 5 time I think it is now over various chipset licenses and they've yet to win in court. So judging by the past history of Via vs Intel in chipset licensing I'm inclined to say that VIA really doesnt give a damn if they have a license or not.

That said, I don't expect to a duall S478 board anytime soon.



<<
I don't see the point in offering a dual p4 board. The Intel Xeons aren't priced high like the P3 Xeons were. If you buy two 2.2 GHz P4 chips it will cost about $100 less than two 2.2 GHz Xeon chips. That is about a 10% difference in price. Add in the costs of the motheboards, memory, video card, case, and other components and a dual 2.2 GHz Xeon is only about 5% more expensive than this hypothetical dual 2.2 GHz P4 machine.
 >>



Judging by PriceWatch you pay roughly $130 extra per Retail boxed 2.2GHz Intel Xeon rather then an equivalent speed Northwood. So that would make $260 extra for two Xeon's.
The big killer though, is the price for a dual processor S603 I860 mainboard, which is going for about $450 at present.
Considering that a dual S478 P4 board could probably be done for about $230 or so that's a rather significant price differential.

Then there is always the fact that most dual S603 mainboards are virtually non-overclockable, and it's rather unlikely you will ever see a manufacturer producing a Xeon board meant for overclockers... whereas a Dual S478 board would quite likely be suitable for the overclockers.
Plus most Dual S603 Xeon boards are Extended ATX, and may not fit in many regular ATX cases.
I could continue but I think the point is made that it could potentially be considerably easier and cheaper for a someone to build a Dual S478 P4 system rather then a dually Xeon wre such boards available for the P4.
 
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