The whole E/B/EB naming convention was Intel's way of telling the
difference between their original Pentium-III's
(introduced in February 1999) and the various flavours of their
second-generation 'Coppermine' Pentium-III's
(introduced in September/October 1999) that happen to share the same clock
speed.
The original Pentium-III's were
built using the industry standard manufacturing process at that time,
based on a 0.25µ trace size. Times changed and the denser, more energy
efficient 0.18µ size became the new standard for all the 'Coppermine'
series Pentium-III's and Xeons. As
the first of these 0.18µ processors operated at the same clock speed
(500 MHz) as the
older 0.25µ chips, the 'E' distinguished the newer, slightly faster CPUs:
The 'B' designation identified pre-Coppermine Pentium-III's
(built using the older 0.25µ process) that ran on a 133MHz system bus,
rather than the original 100MHz bus:
So, of course, 'EB' refers to the newer Coppermine
Pentium-III's that run on a 133MHz bus.
As the Pentium-III increased in speed and standardised on the
133 MHz bus and the Coppermine architecture, the 'EB' designations
became redundant and are normally dropped when referring to these faster
chips. That's why the P3 733 and the 733 EB are actually the
same CPU, as all 733 MHz Pentium-III's are Coppermines running on a
133 MHz bus. Similarly for the P3 866, 933, and the rest of the Xeon
and desktop Pentium-III processors (mobile Pentium-III's are another
story...) you inquired about. In our CPU Scorecard
lists, we have dropped the redundant 'EB' designation for these chips,
for clarity and brevity.
The P4 'EB' is a myth, as Pentium 4's are neither Coppermines nor
do they run on a 133 MHz bus. However, Intel does use the designation
'A' to distinguish between their original 'Willamette' and newer
'Northwood' Pentium 4's that
happen to share the same clock speed (as in Pentium 4
2.0A).
|
