Staggered Shipping Dates

Third Generation Dual-core

8/6 - This is the third generation of Intel's dual-core technology, the first being the Pentium D, the second Core Duo, or Yonah, and the third being the Core 2 processor family.

It is the second generation of mobile dual-core technolgy, the first being Core Duo, aka Yonah.

The Core 2 processor family improves upon the Pentium D in two ways: performance and energy efficiency, advancing the platform by up to 40% both ways. Improvements over the previous generation mobile processor are not nearly as dramatic, though they are present.

Core 2 Duo fits inside the current Centrino Duo platform, called Napa. In fact, the current platform with a Core 2 Duo processor is known as the Napa Refresh.

The mobile version of the new processor is thus drop-in compatible with the current Centrino platform, and the platform should be easily upgradable to Core 2 Duo.

Because the Napa platform already exists, many of the neat features of the technology--support for 802.11e QoS, a 667MHz FSB--are already present. The net effect of the Core 2 Duo mobile processor is thus blunted to a nice little performance boost.

Intel 64

Santa Rosa