The fact that Intel has really high hopes for their dual core concept is hardly any news and as of today it actually has 10 separate dual-core projects running.
“Dual core” means that one physical processor containstwo merged cores which in theory should double the processors capacity.
In real life you won’t gain 100% performance, but by using mulitple cores the processor can work much more efficient doing several tasks at once (multitasking).
Intel has released even more information regarding their dual core plans and among others they claim that their first dual core processors have already been made and the launch is close.
Already during the second quarter of 2005 we should see the first processors and chipsets for the dual core market.
Another interesting thing is that Intel has announced that their HyperThreading technology will appear on their dual core processors. The first statements on Intel’s dual core processors was that the HT technology would not be present.
HT that simulate two physical processor cores is also way to increase the processor’s multitasking ability and we were quite surprised when Intel initially chose not to use the technology with their dual core series, but now we know better.
“Intel plans to deliver two separate dual-core products and dual-core-enabled chipsets for its Pentium(R) processor-class families in the second quarter, including the Pentium(R) processor Extreme Edition. The Intel(R) Pentium(R) Processor Extreme Edition will include Hyper-Threading Technology, providing the ability to process four software “threads” simultaneously.”
In other words HT will appear on Intel’s dual core processors, but only on the flagship Extreme Edition. HT support will cost you in other words, question will it be worth it?
Source: Business Wire
