Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 'Kentsfield' Test

Quad-core

The Duo in the name Core 2 Duo indicates that it is a dual core processor, a CPU incorperating two fully functional cores. The Core 2 Duo is not Intel's first dual core processor, as the Pentium D was a dual core version of the Pentium 4 processor. There are quite a few differences between the two though, where the Pentium D was nothing more than two Pentium 4 processors placed on one die, the Core 2 Duo is a monolithic dual core chip. This means that both cores are in one chip, en because of this both cores can fully utilize the shared L2 cache. The introduction today is the first quad core processor, meaning four cores in one processor package. The same trick has been used as in the Pentium D processors, so the Kentsfield is basically two Core 2 Duo processors on one die, both with their own bit of cache, but the four core can not use the complete cache as shared like the Core 2 Duo does.

Kentsfield consists of two Conroe chips in one package.

AMD fans will therefore argue that the Kentsfield is not a true quad core processor, a statement that is partly correct. However the Kentsfield does hold four seperate CPU cores, all fully functional, so the theoretical processing power is twice that of a Core 2 Duo chip.

We can think of enough reasons why Intel has chosen to use this approach: As stated before by doing it this way they are able to release a quad core processor within six months of the initial Conroe release. If they had to develop a quad core from scratch this would have taken a lot longer. Also by using two Conroe chips they do not need a seperate production facility to produce the chips, but can utilize the already existing facilities. Finally if they would have developed a monolithic quad core chip the size of this would be twice the size of the existing chips, creating the need for new chipsets and motherboards but also would cause dramatic yields and drive up the costs and also the end price of the product.

There is no doubt that Intel will release a "true" quad core chip in the future, but no official announcements have been made as of yet. Speculations are that when Intel will start 45nm production sometime in 2007 a new quad core will surface, as the die size of a processor on that production process will be a lot smaller than on the current 65nm. A smaller process will also mean more chips in one wafer, so more efficient and cheaper to produce.