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Tid-bits
12/25 - More benchmarks are available on Yonah, Intel’s upcoming, dual-core notebook processor, due out in January, which is next month. The benchmarks compare the current Pentium M, Core Duo (dual-core Yonah, as opposed to single core), and Athlon 64 X2 CPUs. Basically the results confirm earlier results which show the mobile Yonah achieving overall performance parity with the desktop Athlon 64 X2 and significantly outpacing the current Penium M in just about everything.
The parity in overall performance with the Athlon CPUs is achieved in spite of the X2’s larger L1 cache and on-die memory controller. The Athlon 64 X2 still maintains superiority in 3D gaming, “most likely due to its on-die memory controller".
The Achilles heel of Yonah may be its inability to scale clock speeds much beyond 2GHz. The benchmarks show Yonah to be very competitive with the Athlon 64 X2 at 2GHz. But the Athlon 64 X2 can go much higher than 2GHz. "So the question isn't just how competitive Yonah is at 2.0GHz, but rather, how high can Yonah go?"
The successor to Yonah shall be Merom. We do not know the number of pipeline stages in Yonah, but we know that it has fewer than Merom will have. This is what will allow Merom to clock higher than Yonah. Intel always said that the new micro architecture was a cross between the Pentium 4 Netburst architecture and the Pentium M, and Merom will be like the Pentium 4 Netburst in that its pipeline stages will have increased, though not nearly as much as with Netburst.
With Yonah, Intel has done its part. You might still need more powerful graphics, “but at least your CPU needs will be covered".
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