Intel Pentium M 715 socket: Socket 479

What the Pentium M 715 is

The Intel Pentium M 715 is a 1.5 GHz single-core mobile processor from June 2004. It runs one P6 variant Dothan core at 1.5 GHz with no turbo, so 1 core gives 1 thread. Cache is 2 MB of L2 with 32 KB of L1 data and 32 KB of L1 instruction cache on a 90 nm process. Power is rated at 21 W in a Socket 479 package with a 400 MT/s front side bus and a 15x multiplier at 0.988 V to 1.34 V.

Dothan doubles the Banias cache from 1 MB to 2 MB while moving from 130 nm to 90 nm, which lifts performance at the same clocks with similar power. The 715 at 1.5 GHz with 2 MB sold at 209 dollars in June 2004 as the entry Dothan, against 1.6 GHz 725 parts at 241 dollars. The chip supports MMX, SSE and SSE2 with Enhanced SpeedStep trimming clocks on battery. A 715A shares clocks as an OEM variant, so board lists may show either suffix at identical specs.

Low power with a large cache defines the use case. The 21 W envelope with SpeedStep allows thin notebooks with long battery life, while the 2 MB L2 keeps office tasks responsive at modest frequency. That is why Dothan parts replaced Banias parts in Centrino notebooks without new chassis designs.

Socket and motherboard compatibility

The Pentium M 715 fits Socket 479 thin notebooks with DDR memory, a 400 MT/s bus and Dothan BIOS support. It needs a mobile 479-pin board with SpeedStep paths, not a Socket 478 desktop board despite the close pin count. The Socket vs chipset: what decides whether a CPU works guide covers pairing rules.

Thin Centrino notebooks with Intel 855 chipsets are the natural match. Boards listing Dothan 400 MT/s parts accept the 715 with a 21 W heat pipe. Banias-only boards may boot yet miss Dothan microcode without a BIOS update. Socket 478 Mobile Pentium 4 parts need desktop-replacement chassis instead.

Memory, PCIe and cooling

Memory is DDR through the board chipset, with SO-DIMM slots fixed by the notebook. Speed follows the 400 MT/s bus. The CPU has no memory controller.

A 400 MT/s bus ties the CPU to the mobile chipset, while graphics hangs off the chipset. No PCIe lanes originate on the die. Cooling is the notebook heat pipe for a 21 W envelope with quiet fans. SpeedStep drops voltage and clocks on battery, which extends life in thin bodies. Regular vent cleaning matters more than cooler size.

Upgrade paths

On Socket 479 the steps are the Pentium M 725 at 1.6 GHz and the 735 at 1.7 GHz with the same 2 MB cache and 21 W envelope for direct swaps where listed. Banias 1.5 GHz parts with 1 MB offer a smaller cache alternative. Beyond Socket 479 a move to Socket M needs a new notebook for Core Solo parts. The 715 removes with the socket mechanism, so swaps need no solder work.