Pentium 4's Way Into The Market
When Intel launched its Pentium 4 processor in November 2000 the world wasn't quite sure what to think about this new 'net bursting' and 'rapid executing' CPU. Pentium 4's completely new architecture presented as many highlights as it showed shortcomings and the benchmarks revealed a rather inhomogeneous picture. While Intel's flagship was able to shine in some test applications, it looked pretty sad in others. Overall, it was utterly unable to completely outclass its No. 1 competitor, AMD's Athlon processor.
Pentium 4 Optimized Software
The most important features of Pentium 4's architecture are probably its 3.2 GB/s
Intel is of course working hard on pushing software developers into implementing code optimizations for Pentium 4, but those guys don't feel particularly hard-pressed as long as the majority of users is using Pentium III or Athlon processors and only a small minority is owning Pentium 4 machines. Still, Pentium 4 enhancements are slowly finding their way into graphics chip drivers, games and professional applications, so that the future looks bright enough for P4.