Intel's next generation of microprocessors has been released. These are dual core processors, basically two processors in one microchip. The desktop and laptop processors are referred to as Core 2 Duo. The Xeon 5100 series are the server and workstation processors. Intel's main competitor, Advance Micro Devices (AMD) has already released its new architecture; which is more of a socket change to the new AM2 socket and an accompanying switch to DDR2 RAM from the previous socket 939's DDR RAM. This change only gave a performance boost of about 5%. However, unlike AMD's, the new Intel chips are far superior to the old Intel chips. Since the video card manufacturers have almost phased out producing new video cards for the AGP interface/slot on the older motherboards (replaced by the PCI Express interface) and the upcoming Windows Vista operating system coming next January has very high system requirements (www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx); getting a new processor more cost effective and likely.

Intel's Core 2 Duo processors are looking like a nightmare for AMD's marketing department. Up until now AMD processors have been superior in performance, power consumption, and lower heat generation. With these new processors Intel has turned the tables on AMD in all these three areas. Benchmark tests from many different sources indicate that Core 2 Duo processor computers have about 15-30% greater speed than their equivalent AMD processor based machines, depending on the application. The chips have 64-bit extension/memory support. Also they have what Intel refers to as Advanced Digital Media Boost to accelerate multimedia performance. Some are referring to this as the SSE 4 extension set, but are really features to accelerate the processing of the previous SSE extension sets (AMD processors only have up to SSE 3). The past Intel processors were known to require about 25% more power than the AMD, but the new chips are going to be more in line with the AMD power requirements even though they have greater processing power. This also means that many of the heat problems of the Intel. processors should disappear. The chips also have the execute disable bit antivirus support, Intel's virtualization technology, better thermal control/sensing and cooling fan control, and better power management. There are five models the desktop version of the chip; the Core 2 Extreme X6800 and the Core 2 Duo E6700, E6600, E6400, and E6300. All these processors have a front side bus speed of 266 MHz, but they operate in quad data rate mode which gives them an equivalent transfer speed 1066 MHz. The Core 2 Extreme X6800 has a clock speed of 2.93 GHz. The Core 2 Duo E6700, E6600, E6400, and E6300 have a clock speed of 2.66 GHz, 2.40 GHz, 2.13 GHz, and 1.86 GHz respectively. For the L2 cache, the Core 2 Extreme X6800 Core 2 Duo E6700 and E6600 have 4MB and the Core 2 Duo E6400 and E6300 have 2 MB. The power requirements the Extreme will have 75 watts and the rest 65 watts, which is quite and improvement from the 130 and 95 watt requirements of Intel's previous generation of dual core microprocessors. For the overclockers, the Extreme has its frequency multipliers unlocked for easier and more flexible overclocking capability, but the other chips you can only overclock by adjusting the front side bus speed. The processors will be using the current LGA 775 socket, but most old motherboards with this socket will not support the new processors.

You may say that this is great if you have a lot of money to spend. However, this time Intel is not planning to charge premium prices on most of its new processors on launch. This is because this time their objective is to get back the market share they have lost to AMD. The X6800 will be at the premium list price of $999, but the E6700 will be $530, E6600 will be $316, E6400 will be $224, and the E6400 will be $183. Considering that an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 chip costing $316 in applications tests many times beats AMD's version of an extreme processor, the FX-62, which cost in mid-July over $1,000; Intel is really trying to give potential customers great value in order to win back business. However, currently the demand for Intel's new chips exceeds the supply. This is causing a 20-45% price premium over Intel's target price. Current information is that supply will be in line with demand at least by November, which then should eliminate the price premium.

AMD made major price drops on their processors the same week as the new Intel processors launched in order for them to remain competitive. These price drops were in the order of 40-60%. The next chance for AMD to counter Intel's processors is expected to be sometime in the first half of next year, possibly as early as January. This will include their quad core processors. In the meantime, they will introduce their 4x4 platform, which will have two of its FX extreme dual core processors in one computer. Of course why they are trying to release by January is this is when Microsoft will be launching its new operating system, Windows Vista. However, most analysts say that AMD is not going to be able to leapfrog Intel in performance with these releases as Intel is doing now. Also Intel is expected to release its first generation of quad core processors also in January. There are also reports that AMD will discontinue manufacturing socket 939 and 754 processors before the end of this year.

The new Intel processors are a great leap forward. Intel's pricing strategy will allow you get more processing power for your dollar on both Intel's and AMD's chips.

A good source on further updates on both Intel's and AMD's processors is the website Tom's Hardware Guide. Right now we are entering a period where you will be able to get greater value for your processor buck, which with many needing more processing power when Windows Vista comes out is very welcome news.

Timothy Everingham is a past Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH, the largest chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery's(ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques and one of Southern California's significant professional organizations within the entertainment and media industries. He graduated with honors with the double majors of Management Information Systems and Accounting from California State University, Fullerton. He is also part-time press in the areas of high technology, computers, video, audio, and entertainment/media and has had articles published throughout the United States and Canada plus Australia, England, & Japan. He is a member of TUGNET. Further information can be found at http://home.earthlink.net~teveringham.