Core 2 Duo Screams Into Laptop Market

Written by Adam Gosling

Tuesday, 29 August 2006

The wait is almost over for those wanting to get their hands on Intel's Core 2 Duo laptop processors with systems based on the new microarchitecture expected to be announced over the next few days. Starting at just US$209 for the T5500 (2MB cache) and scaling up to US$637 for the T7600 chips (4MB cache) (in 1000 quantities), the mobile version of the Intel Core 2 Duo processors should quickly become the industry standard for business laptops. That is certainly what Intel willbe hoping as it tries to drive yet another nail into AMD's laptop coffin. The chip cements Intel's position as the leading mobile processor. Combined with aggressive pricing, the Core 2 Dup release is likely to force competitor AMD into even more of a corner than the Core Duo (Conroe) processors did earlier this year. Intel says more than 200 mobile designs from PC manufacturers, resellers and integrators are already scheduled for release. "In just one year we've taken extraordinary leaps in mobile and desktop computing with the launch of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor," said David (Dadi) Perlmutter, senior vice president of Intel's Mobility Group. "For laptops the new processor has doubled the performance, giving consumers and businesses an immersive mobile experience while keeping power consumption and battery life unchanged," he said. "The dual-core processing power of the Core 2 Duo processor helps people handle the toughest of multi-tasking scenarios no matter where they are." Like the already familiar Core Duo processors, the Intel Core 2 Duo processors have two processing cores to handle multiple tasks in less time with less power. On the outside the low power and heat profile of the processors allows for longer battery life and sleeker, more compact laptop designs. The Centrino Core 2 Duo systems are based on the processors formerly known as Merom joined by the Intel 945 Express chipset family and the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG network connection. The Core 2 Duo processors are really a next generation processors taking a significant departure from the Core Duo chips that Intel launched back in January. The Merom mobile processor along with its desktop brother Conroe and server cousin Woodcrest represent almost complete redesigns of the older Pentium IV and Pentium M processor families. The new Intel Core Microarchitecture (formerly known as Next Generation Microarchitecture) represents something of a culmination of Intel's work to move away from faster clock speeds as a way to improve processor performance. As such, the Core 2 Duo processors are likely to be with us for a many years to come. The Merom processors have been shipping to manufacturers since the end of July when both the desktop and mobile versions were officially launched. Related news items With Half A Billion Cell Phones China Readies High Speed -24/08/2007 LG Goes After Quanta Again -05/07/2007 Nokia Introduces Software Updater -07/03/2007 Mobile Content Goldrush at 3GSM, as WCDMA Clocks 100 Million Subscribers -18/02/2007 Actix Claims Top Spot in Automatic Wireless Optimisation Sector -14/02/2007 Newer news items MacBook's Get Processor Upgrade -24/10/2006 Pioneer Adds Grunt To UMPC -27/09/2006 Acer Low-Cost Vista-Ready Laptop -18/09/2006 Acer's Core 2 Duo Laptops -12/09/2006 New Toshiba Notebooks Well Guarded -06/09/2006 Older news items HP Docking Station Has Own Storage -30/07/2006 Dell's Embarrassment Grows: Another Laptop Fire -30/07/2006 Lenovo Slashes US ThinkPad Price -26/07/2006 Notebook Shipments to miss 2006 targets -12/07/2006 HP Gets Chic With New Laptops -06/07/2006 Tag This Now: