Intel gets extreme

Intel has announced a new gamer-focused Pentium 4 processor, in an attempt to capture the high-end desktop consumer market.

Announced by vice president and co-general manager of Intel's Desktop Platforms Group, Louis Burns, at Intel's Developer Forum in the US, the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition with Hyper-Threading technology will start at 3.2GHz.

The only additional distinction from the regular Pentium 4 is an extra 2MB of Level 3 cache - standard Pentium 4's do not feature a Level 3 cache at all. Level 3 cache is typically seen in high-end server processors, like Intel's own Xeon MP line.

No word was available on price, however the chip is due to start shipping within the next two months.

Burns also announced Intel's 815 Digital Set Top Box (DSTB) reference specifications, which features the Low Voltage Celeron or the Ultra Low Voltage Celeron and runs on 100 or 133MHz bus.

Designed for living room entertainment, it also features integrated 3D graphics (via the 815E chipset) optional Macrovision 7 support and hardware MPEG decoding. On the software side, it is designed to support Windows CE, Windows XP embedded and Linux.

The DSTB forms part of Intel's push into home networking and consumer media convergence.

David Kidd travelled to the Intel Developer Forum courtesy of Intel.