Intel Core Duo Processors
The first Intel Core 2 Duo processor cores, codenamed Conroe, were launched on July 27, 2006. These processors are built on a 65 nm process and are intended for desktops, replacing the Pentium 4 and Pentium D. Intel has claimed that Conroe provides 40% more performance at 40% less power compared to the Pentium D. All Conroe processors have 4 MB L2 cache; however, the E6300 and E6400 versions have half of their cache disabled, hence they only have 2 MB of usable L2 cache.
The higher end Conroe processors are labeled as the E6600 and E6700 Core 2 Duo models, with the E6600 clocked at 2.4 GHz and the E6700 clocked at 2.67 GHz. The family has a 1066 MT/s front side bus, 4 MB shared L2 cache, and 65 watts TDP. These processors have been tested against AMD's current top performing processors (Athlon 64 FX Series), which were, until this latest Intel release, the fastest CPUs available, and the Conroe boasts much faster performance. Overclocking results show that the E6700 and E6600 are stable when overclocked to 4 GHz with air cooling and to 5.4 GHz with liquid nitrogen cooling, despite having locked multipliers.
The intel Quadcore CPU
With the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 processor, Intel integrated not only dual Prescott CPU cores but also carried their HyperThreading technology forward into the chip as well. As a result there are actually 4 "logical" processing elements available in this new Pentium, two actual physical cores that each have the ability two process two independent threads simultaneously.
Intel tells us that the QX6700 will fit in at the US$999 price point in 1000 unit quantities. That’s the same price point that the Core 2 Extreme X6800 slotted in at back in July. The street price will obviously be a little different, but since Intel’s Core 2 Extreme X6800 sells for a whopping £643 including VAT, you can expect the QX6700 to cost around the same as the Conroe-based X6800 chip.
Initially, there will only be the one quad-core processor in Intel’s line up, but a second will follow in Q1 ’07. When the Core 2 Quad Q6600 is announced, it will be no surprise to find that it’ll be clocked at the same speed as the Core 2 Duo E6600 – 2.40GHz with a 1066MHz front side bus.
The only other differentiating feature between the Q6600 and the QX6700 is that the former has its multiplier locked between 6.0x and 10.0x. You’ll get the same 8MB of L2 cache split into a pair of 4MB L2 caches.
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