Bozo said:
Do you think Steve Jobs knew this was comming from Intel?? Maybe got some inside info from Intel??
Steve Jobs certainly knew about Core and Core2 more than 2 years ago (Itanium goings on as well). He was very likely "shown the lab" at Intel before he made any decisions. He has regularly been wined and dined over the years by Intel people. One of the people that helped start Apple (the money man) was ex-Intel. Apple's headquarters is near Intel's headquarters. Apple has used Intel 960 RISC controllers and X-Scale processors in their laser printers and storage arrays, so, they already were an account holder.
Tannin said:
If, like me, you are primarily interested in price-performance, and only mildly interested in raw performance, and not at all interested in the performance of anything that costs so much that no-one will buy it, it has been a very long time.
If it's strictly price, yes, you will be sticking with AMD for at least the next year, because Intel will not have any "bargains" other than end-of-production markdown "Prescott" P4 processors for a while.
However, I'm guessing by October of next year, that tune will likely change because Intel should be pumping out zippy little cool running Core Solo (i.e. -- 32-bit Core"1") desktop chips for absolute dirt cheap prices, with the Core Duo at a whopping 10% price premium. By October of 2008, 32-bit Core processors will probably still be around but fabricated at 45 nm and costing 50% less than before and capable of outrunning a 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 (at that point, I'm thinking 2 GHz for US$20). But, as far as Intel goes, the real action from here on out will *definitely* be processors based on Core2 (64-bit).
The Pentium 4 has never been attractive. The current ones are red-hot and dog-slow...
You'd be happy to know that the last Pentium 4 was recently released (65 nm fabrication). I don't know why they really even bothered with the damned thing. It is only a bit faster than the previous generation "Prescott." (PS: Prescott, Arizona: I've been through there, and it's plenty hot. Good code name for that processor!)
Then there was the legendary Celeron 300A. A damn good chip. A brilliant chip if you were into overclocking, maybe the best overclocker of all time...
The Celery 300A is now the second best Intel overclocker.
The Core2 "Conroe" processor has tremendous overclockability. There have been numerous reports of overclocking well into the 4 GHz range with Core2 processors. There was a very recent major stepping (B0) of the Core2 core (for Duo and Solo processor packages, both Desktop and Xeonic flavours, and probably mobiles). There has been a few reports of people getting an astounding 5+ GHz out of these along with an equally astounding 2+ GHz front side bus speed!
Below is a handly little table that I've not had a chance to update in a while:
SERVER
Core2 Duo Xeon "Woodcrest" (64-bit dual-core Core2 Xeon)
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
5160 3.00 1333 80 4MB
5150 2.66 1333 65 4MB
5148(LV) 2.33 1333 40 4MB
5140 2.33 1333 65 4MB
5130 2.00 1333 65 4MB
5120 1.86 1066 40 4MB
5110 1.60 1066 40 4MB
------------------------------------------------------------
Pentium-D Xeon "Dempsey" (64-bit dual-core Pentium 4 Xeon)
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
5080 3.73 1066 130 2+2 MB
5070 3.46 1066 130 2+2 MB
5063(LV) 3.20 1066 95 2+2 MB
5060 3.20 667 130 2+2 MB
5050 3.00 667 95 2+2 MB
5040 2.83 667 95 2+2 MB
5030 2.66 667 95 2+2 MB
5020 2.50 667 95 2+2 MB
------------------------------------------------------------
Core2 Solo Xeon "Kaylo" (64-bit single-core Core2 Xeon)
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
31xx 3.00 1600 4MB
------------------------------------------------------------
Core2 Quadro Xeon "Cloverton" (64-bit quad-core Core2 Xeon)
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
71xx 2.67 1066 110 4+4 MB
71xx 1.86 1066 80 4+4 MB
------------------------------------------------------------
Core Duo Xeon "Sosaman" (32-bit dual-core low-voltage Core"1" Xeon)
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
??? 2.00 667 31 2MB
??? 1.66 667 31 2MB
DESKTOP
Core2 Duo "Conroe" (64-bit dual-core desktop Core2)
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
X6900 3.20 1066 80 4MB
X6800 2.93 1066 80 4MB
E6700 2.66 1066 65 4MB
E6600 2.40 1066 65 4MB
E6400 2.13 1066 65 2MB
E6300 1.86 1066 ??? 2MB
E4200 1.60 800 ??? 2MB
------------------------------------------------------------
Core2 Quadro "Kentsfield" (64-bit quad-core desktop Core2)
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
??? 2.40 1066 95 4+4 MB
------------------------------------------------------------
Pentium-D "" (64-bit dual-core desktop Pentium 4)
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
965 3.73 1066 130 2+2 MB
960 3.60 800 130 2+2 MB
955 3.46 1066 130 2+2 MB
950 3.40 800 130 2+2 MB
940 3.20 800 130 2+2 MB
930 3.00 800 95 2+2 MB
920 2.80 800 95 2+2 MB
840 3.20 800 130 1+1 MB
830 3.00 800 130 1+1 MB
820 2.80 800 95 1+1 MB
805 2.66 533 95 1+1 MB
MOBILE
Core2 Duo "Merom" (64-bit dual-core mobile Core2)
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
T7700 ??? ??? ??? 4MB
T7600 2.33 667 35 4MB
T7400 2.16 667 35 4MB
T7300 ??? ??? ??? 4MB
T7200 2.00 667 35 4MB
T7000 ??? ??? ??? 2MB
T5600 1.83 667 35 2MB
T5500 1.66 667 35 2MB
L7500 ??? ??? ??? 2MB
L7400 ??? ??? ??? 2MB
U7300 ??? ??? ??? 2MB
U7200 ??? ??? ??? 2MB
U7500 1.06 533 15 2MB
------------------------------------------------------------
Core Duo "Yonah" (32-bit dual-core mobile Core"1")
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
T2700 2.33 667 31 2MB
T2600 2.16 667 31 2MB
T2500 2.00 667 31 2MB
T2400 1.83 667 31 2MB
T2300 1.66 667 31 2MB
L2400 1.66 667 15 2MB
L2300 1.50 667 15 2MB
U2500 1.20 533 9 2MB
------------------------------------------------------------
Core Solo "Yonah" (32-bit single-core mobile Core"1")
Model# Clock GHz FSB MHz Watts L2 Cache
T1400 1.83 667 27 2MB
T1300 1.66 667 27 2MB
U1400 1.20 533 5 2MB
U1300 1.06 533 5 2MB