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Processors Toolkit

Benchmarks: Intel's 64-bit Pentium 4 660

Kai Schmerer ZDNet Germany

Published: 03 Mar 2005

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Protection from worms and trojans

The new Intel chips include technology designed to prevent dangerous code -- contained in email attachments, for example -- being executed via buffer overflows. This is the eXecute Disable (XD) bit, which makes its first appearance on a mainstream Intel desktop CPU: until now, Intel has only implemented the XD bit in the server-class Itanium processor, and a limited number of Pentium 4 variants (those with the suffix 'J'). The Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX and Opteron processors also offer this feature, which AMD calls No eXecute (NX).

Windows XP has supported the XD/NX feature since Service Pack 2 (Microsoft calls it 'Data Execution Prevention', or DEP). With DEP, the operating system provides a measure of inbuilt protection from worms and trojans, reducing the need to constantly install new security patches. Microsoft estimates that memory overflows lead to 50 per cent of all virus attacks; systems with XD or NX chips are therefore better protected against such attacks than those lacking this feature.

 

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Full Talkback thread

33 comments

  1. Why no Linux based benchmarks? 64 bit linux has a... James Essex
  2. 64 bit Linux isn't even considered in the art... davidm
  3. You know what's funny? I read these articles... Anonymous Cowheard
  4. Mostly directed at ubah Linux hardcorz: How a... Michael Jaars
  5. That's because linux suck, get a grip Anonymous
  6. "64-bit computing [...] won't be a huge deal for t... Casper Wilstrup
  7. While it's nice to see some competition in the 64-... Fredrik Tolf
  8. In the case of architectures like Ultrasparc... Tim
  9. The games benchmarks are obviously limit... Filotti
  10. What an irritatingly Windows-centric view. I need... Sean C, McCord
  11. Who cares about Windows anymore? Everyone is switc... Anonymous
  12. Linux, Linux, Linux. Do the review again! Jim
  13. not everyone is moving to linux! dont be a la... that guys a lamer
  14. How about Linux benchmarks? Windows is pretty much... Anonymous
  15. what the fuck does the following mean "although th... Anonymous
  16. STFU you stupid Linux fanboys. All you guys... Skippity McDoody
  17. To say 64-bit versions of architectures... Anonymous
  18. Hopefully you do not use intel. If you do - d... rowan
  19. what the fcuk does the following mean "although th... Anonymous
  20. Look more like an Intel Press release than a bench... Paul Blair (toadlife)
  21. You need 64-bit windows to make best use of it? Wh... michael goulish
  22. Sean, it doesn't seem to me that that is what the... Jason Archer
  23. Considering Microsoft's inability to provide... The Mitch
  24. "Intel may draw comfort from the fact that it has... Some Llama
  25. Itanium is truly 64 bits ok. read the article... Anonymous
  26. can't be 82%c. at that temp, your processor i... Anonymous
  27. I just recently bought the Intel Pentium... DeSi
  28. well to start off i think this article is sorta bi... Tyler
  29. Great review! Sorry to say that all you Linux lam... Anonymous
  30. Unless I'm missing something, neither AMD64 n... Cubase SX User
  31. I have bought the intel 660 ( 3,6GHz 64-bit) chip.... Kostis Tsiutras
  32. Windows Rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Windows Fan
  33. AMD 64-bit improved my genetic algorithm optimizat... Anonymous

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