Bjorn3D has posted a review on the Intel Pentium 4 550 (3.4 GHz LGA775) Processor

As clock frequencies ramp up, packaging is playing a key role in processor performance these days. Important things to keep in mind when thinking about a processor's speed are the interfaces between it and its package and between the package and the motherboard. If the pins or interconnects for either of these interfaces cannot handle transferring data as fast as the chipset's front side bus demands it, then the processor speed is limited by the interface. Although its current processors are not quite outperforming the ability of these interfaces, Intel Corporation decided recently that it was time to introduce a new package for their flagship Pentium 4 line of processors in order to get ahead of the curve a little bit. The engineers at Intel chose a design that is quite different than any other mainstream CPU available today. The processor design itself has not changed; the packaging of the processor is what has changed. Intel is still using the recently released Prescott core (replaced Northwood) for their Pentium 4 line-up.

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