The newest member of the
Intel processor family. Codenamed "Conroe", it was quite possibly the most anticipated processor launch in
history. Core 2 Duo marks the retirement of the "Pentium" brand that has been Intel's flagship brand since 1993, and the streamlining of Intel's desktop and mobile product lines. Based on a hybrid Pentium M/Pentium 4 architecture, Core 2 Duo and its adherent, the Core 2 Extreme are both
dual-core processors that use approximately 40% less
power than the Pentium D, and run much cooler than their predecessors.
Benchmarks from various enthusiast review sites have shown the Core 2 Duo/Extreme's performance surpasses that of AMD's high-performance chip, the FX-62. All Core 2 Duo/Extreme processors run on a 1066 Mhz front side bus, have 4 MBs of L2 Cache (the exception being the E6300 and E6400 models, which feature 2MBs of L2 Cache), and use the LGA775 socket already in use by the Pentium 4/D/Extreme. With a
quad-core iteration of the Core 2 Duo on the horizon, codenamed Kentsfield, to be released at the end of this year, the
future is looking pretty bright for Intel.
