Processor

Similarities and differences between the Pentium 4 and the Celeron chips :

Celeron processor is a good and cheaper alternative to Pentium II, Pentium III and Pentium 4 microprocessors when the top performance is not required, and microprocessor and desktop price is important. The Celeron processors are based on the same core as more expensive Pentium-branded processors, but usually lack in some features such as L2 cache size and bus speed. Since the Celeron processor family spans three generations of x86 microprocessors, the differences between Celeron and Pentium processors vary depending on the generation.

•             Core - The Celeron chip is based on a Pentium 4 core.

•             Cache - Celeron chips have less cache memory than Pentium 4 chips do. A Celeron might have                   128 kilobytes of L2 cache, while a Pentium 4 can have four times that. The amount of L2 cache                     memory can have a big effect on performance.

•             Clock speed - Intel manufactures the Pentium 4 chips to run at a higher clock speed than Celeron                chips. The fastest Pentium 4 might be 60 percent faster than the fastest Celeron.

•             Bus speed - There are differences in the maximum bus speeds that the processors allow. Pentium                   4s tend to be about 30 percent faster than Celerons.¬

When you sort all this out and compare the two chips side by side, it turns out that a Celeron and a Pentium 4 chip running at the same speed are different beasts. The smaller L2 cache size and slower bus speeds can mean serious performance differences depending on what you want to do with your computer. If all you do is check e-mail and browse the Web, the Celeron is fine, and the price difference can save you a lot of money. If you want the fastest machine you can buy, then you need to go with the Pentium 4 to get the highest clock speeds and the fastest system bus.

Deference Between Pentium and core processor

The difference between a Pentium 4 and a duo core processor is that a Pentium four only has one mode for a processor thus making it slower, the duo core processor has 2 modes for processing.

Pentium History

Intel debuted the original Pentium processor in 1993, and the device bears little similarity to the ever-more-powerful processors that would follow. The successive Pentium Pro, Pentium 2, Pentium 3 and Pentium 4 processors were among the most popular processors of the 1990s, with competition from AMD devices. Other processors using the Pentium name included the Pentium D, Pentium M and newer Pentium Dual-Core families. The processors have seen use in desktop as well as laptop machines.

Core History

Intel introduced the Core brand in 2006 as a replacement for the Pentium M line of processors, and the initial devices shared much of the same technology with the current Pentium-branded offerings. Follow-ups to the original include the Core Solo, Core Duo,  Core 2 Quad, Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processor families. Starting with the Core 2, Core products were available for both laptop and desktop computers.

Pentium vs Core i3

The Pentium is probably the most popular line of Intel processors but it has been cast of the limelight due to the appearance of the newer Core line. But with the introduction of the Pentium G6950 and the Core i3 5xxx series, which are both Clarkdales, the need to identify the differences between them arises again. To be quick about it, the Pentium is basically identical to the i3 but with certain features disabled to differentiate it from the i3 and make it fit the price range of a low-end model.

For starters, the Pentium only has 3MB of L3 cache memory while the i3 has 4MB. More cache directly translates to lesser main memory accesses, which is much slower compared to cache memory. Controllers on the Pentium are also slower compared to those found on the i3. The memory controller of the i3 supports 1066Mhz and 1333Mhz modules while the Pentium would supports 1066Mhz and would automatically scale down the 1333Mhz module you put in. This is also the case when it comes to the graphics controller of the both processors. Whereas the i3 graphics controller runs at 733Mhz, that of the Pentium is only able to run at 533Mhz.

Also on the integrated graphics aspect, the Pentium lacks support for the Intel Clear Video HD Technology. This technology covers the playback of video and includes such features as dual video decode for Blu-ray, deep color and extended gamut, and other high-end options for video playback. All this can be found on the i3.

Lastly, hyper-threading is disabled in the Pentium but not in the i3. Hyper-threading allows the operating system to see each core as two virtual cores. While the Pentium is seen by the operating system as having two cores, the i3 is seen as having four due to hyper-threading. Hyper-threading is known to provide performance improvements in applications that are optimized for multi-threading, where the tasks are broken up and pieces are assigned to different cores.