Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Originally based on Intel's advanced 0.25-micron CMOS process technology, the PIII
core started out with more than 9.5 million transistors. In late 1999, Intel shifted to a
0.18-micronprocessdie(code-namedCoppermine)andadded256KBofon-dieL2cache,
which brought the transistor count to 28.1 million. The last version of the Pentium III
(code-named Tualatin) uses a 0.13-micron process and has 44 million transistors; mother-
boards made before the Tualatin-core versions of the Pentium III generally do not sup-
port this processor because of logical pinout changes. The Pentium III was manufactured
in speeds from 450MHz through 1.4GHz, as well as in server versions with larger or
fastercacheknownasthePentiumXeon.ThePentiumIIIalsoincorporatesadvancedfea-
tures such as a 32KB L1 cache and either half-core speed 512KB L2 cache or full-core
speedon-die256KBor512KBL2withcacheabilityforupto4GBofaddressablememory
space. The PIII also can be used in dual-processing systems with up to 64GB of physic-
al memory. A self-reportable processor serial number gives security, authentication, and
system management applications a powerful new tool for identifying individual systems.
Becauseofprivacyconcernswhentheprocessorwasreleased,youcandisablethisfeature
in the system BIOS on most systems that use the Pentium III or Celeron III processors.
Pentium III processors were made available in Intel's SECC2 form factor, which replaced
the more expensive older SECC packaging. The SECC2 package covers only one side of
the chip and allows for better heatsink attachment and less overall weight. Architectural
features of the Pentium III processor include the following:
•
Streaming SIMD extensions (SSE)
—Seventy new instructions for dramatically
faster processing and improved imaging, 3D streaming audio and video, web access,
speech recognition, new user interfaces, and other graphics and sound-rich applica-
tions.
•
Intel processor serial number
—Serves as an electronic serial number for the pro-
cessor and, by extension, its system or user. You can enable or disable this feature as
desired in the BIOS Setup. The serial number enables the system/user to be identified
