Introduction
Let us take a step back in to the time when CPUs were very easy to understand. Comparing different processors was so easy, the higher the clock speed of the chip, the faster it would work. That's all there was to it, so simple like 3 GHz was better than 2.4GHz, and that's all one needed to know before buying a processor.
Step 1
The numbers game has of course has been relegated to a historical footnote by latest newer core technologies that now have re-write the rules. Everyone remembers the shock of a processor Core 2 Duo out pacing a Pentium 4 chip at twice the speed.
Step 2
Users found an immediate benefit in moving from single core to dual-core processors and had an immediate benefit in many computing situations; like background applications could run on one core, while the other focused on the tasks at hand is on the other processor. Sometimes the choice of purchasing a processor can be as easy as calculating performance versus price, but other times it is just worth to pay more if it will really satisfy our needs.
Step 3
Intel Processor Core 2 Duo E8400, 3.0 GHz dual-core processor based on the 'Wolf dale' core that is being manufactured on the 45nm process by Intel. This socket 775 processor packs in 6MB of L2 cache and operates with a 1333MHz Front Side Bus speed as well. The Intel Processor Core 2 Duo E8400 retails for different prices around, $199 CDN ($170 USD £113GBP), which makes it considerably affordable.
Step 4
Intel's Core 2 Duo E8400 processor is physically similar to the Processor Core 2 Duo series of E6XXX like Processor Core 2 Duo E6750 (Conroe) and Socket 775 Pentium D processors that came well before it. All of these processors core 2 duos use the Land Grid Array 775-pad package. Now Intel has move to a 45 nanometer manufacturing process that means the silicon die here is approximately 104mm2 in area and contains around 410 million transistors in it.
Step 5
While the Processor Core 2 Duo E8400 is a Socket 775 CPU, it is not compatible with all Socket 775 motherboards, due to different voltage requirements and processor power envelopes. Due to its 45nm die-shrink, the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor can be clocked at much higher speeds yet it maintains the same thermal design power (TDP) as the older 65nm E6XXX series of processors. The typical Thermal Design Power for the Core 2 Duo E8400 processor is 65W.
Features
Hardware virtualization has also improved a lot, it is much better for applications like VMware. Intel has also improved hardware assisted virtualization that is better at managing requests from the virtual manager, which allows both the virtual machine and the native operating system to make calls to the hardware without conflicting with each other. The much larger, 6MB cache on the high-end Wolf dale processors is also very useful in these environments of today.
Comments
Intel has also added some new instruction sets for its Wolf dale Processor core 2 Duo and most of which focus on improving the processors co-ordination with graphics and video acceleration. Intel has also talked a lot in the past about how power efficient these new 45nm Wolf dale processors are going to be and I also conclude and second Intel on their claim.
