Joe, Re: Northwood could deliver sufficient volume at any bin Intel needed.
Intel also launched 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz Northwoods. There is nothing surprising about overlapping frequencies. Prescott also clocks up to 3.4GHz, and I suspect this will be in much higher volume before the end of the month.
Re: What I don't get is why Intel did not shrink Northwood to 90nm before doing something as complicated as Prescott.
Only hindsight is 20/20. Prescott was probably architected in 2000, when there was no concept of impending thermal doom.
Personally, I am not a fan of Prescott, but I can see how Intel can make it successful and competitive. However, I am waiting for Intel to make Pentium M available in a socket 478 or 775. I would love to build a desktop out of Pentium M.