<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1186" target="_new">Anandtech Article</A>
<b>"This was the big attention getter when we published our first live report from IDF, the Willamette has a double pumped Integer Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU). The ALU actually executes the instructions in the Willamette and by “double pumping” it, Intel is able to make the two physical ALUs of the Willamette produce the benefits of four ALUs each running at the core frequency of the CPU.
The Willamette’s double pumped ALU should make the business application and content creation performance of the processor very difficult to beat since those two areas are relatively non-FPU intensive and would benefit greatly from the double pumped Integer ALU."</b>
I think the reason that the P4 has such poor FPU performance is because Intel had to leave part of it out because it wouldn’t fit in the current P4’s huge die size. Hopefully Intel is fixing the FPU in Northwood.
(A)bort, (R)etry, (G)et a beer?