Its been a while since we had a full blown Intel processor lineup, so we took the time to lay out what's new this week. Hopefully you took the chance to read up on our little primer on Intel's XD technology, which is essentially identical to AMD's NX technology. Unfortunately, this now means there will be two versions of Intel's 775 processors floating around (for 580 and below). The new processors are denoted by the "J" suffix, so when you're browsing for your next LGA775 CPU pay particular attention to the suffix to assure you are buying the "E" stepping, XD version of the processor.

Notice that Intel's next generation CPU is labeled as a 7xx series processor, traditionally reserved for the Israeli designed Dothan/Banias cores (Pentium M). Intel seems to have known confusion may abound since we noticed this peculiar disclaimer at the bottom of the roadmap.

Intel processor numbers are not a measure of performance. Processor numbers differentiate features within each processor family, not across different processor families.

We of course believe Intel since it is hard to imagine a 1.0GHz Ultra Low Voltage Dothan outperforming the 720J, but uninformed customers may find themselves in difficult positions to make purchases.

In other desktop CPU news, it looks like the Intel 560 chip is just starting to ship. This is unfortunate since it needs to be immediately phased out by next quarter for the 560J stepping. Typically we do not recommend waiting for new hardware releases for purchase decisions, but if you have your heart set on a LGA775 processor waiting until the next stepping is strongly advised.

Since Dothan (Pentium/Celeron M) continues to push its way into the blade market, and already dominates the mobility market, we are keeping an eye on Intel's eventual plans to move the CPU platform to the desktop too. There are no new significant changes to Intel's value roadmap, but just like the desktop portion of the map, there are "E" steppings of the processor with the XD bit. These labeled with a "J" suffix.

The Pentium M roadmap appears the most convoluted of the batch. Even though we will see processors based on "E" stepping with the XD bit, there are still slated processors on the way which do not incorporate this security feature. It seems logical for Intel to not spend resources updating their older Socket 478 processors, but it does seem odd to not implement the security feature on newer processors. Stay tuned for more CPU and chipset roadmaps coming up this week!