3 ms·

Thanks for the detailed answer!

• aidenn0 3y ago
  Something I forgot to mention is that Intel obtained and maintained a process advantage over Motorola around this time; The early G4 PowerPCs were on Motorola's 200nm process, but had to be downclocked to get the yields up. Intel used their existing 240nm process for the Katmai P3, which allowed them to release a 600MHz stepping of the Katmai the same month that Motorola failed to launch a 500MHz stepping of the 7400. Of course Intel famously then pivoted to the NetBurst architecture, for the P4, which turned out to be an evolutionary dead-end thanks to increased leakage at 90nm. The idea was to tradeoff reduced IPC in exchange for higher clocks, but they were never able to get the ALUs running over 7.6GHz, and they had to reduce IPC so much to get there that any advantages of the high clock speed were lost. Nevertheless the fastest P4s on the 130nm process were significantly faster than the fastest P3s on the 130nm process.