There are many architectural attributes of Intel's Pentium 4 processor, that will drive incremental performance for CPU core, as the months and years roll on, in their battle against their primary competitor, Advanced Micro Devices. Intel engineered the P4 core with a staggeringly deep 20 stage pipeline, that allows clock frequencies to scale with ease. There are certainly pros and cons to having this deeply pipelined architecture. However, in a market where MHz and GHz are king, not only will more clock cycles drive performance, they will also do more to catch the eye of the average consumer, than any marketing weasel could ever dream of.