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The Pentium 4 Northwood is the latest commercial offering in the P4 architecture for desktop users. The Northwood extends the base Willamette architecture by adding a 256-KB Level 2 cache, bringing the total to an impressive 512 KB. Design enhancements include a .13-micron core fabrication process. This smaller die size, combined with additional production revisions, allows the Pentium 4 Northwood to attain impressive overclocking results compared to its Willamette siblings.
Overclocking potential for the P4 Northwood can extend above 500 to 800 MHz with traditional forced-air heatsink cooling and a minimal increase in core voltage levels. Those willing to undertake extreme cooling measures will witness the greatest returns. Recent liquid gas cooling experiments have yielded short-term overclocking results above the 4-GHz range for the latest Northwood revisions. Otherwise, less radical Peltier or vapor-phase cooling technologies should allow operation near the 3-GHz level for most higherclocked Northwood models.
Intel demonstrated an impressive 3.5-GHz Pentium 4 system in 2001, thus revealing the potential for real P4 overclocking.
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