he big surprise is yet to come, as 2008 seems to be the first year when Intel will not ship any Pentium-class processor. The company has successfully transitioned to the Core technology in both low- and high level products.
The new CPU will be based on a 45-nanometer dual core Wolfdale architecture and seems to work at 3.33 GHz (the stock core clock speed). The Wolfdale processor will come with 6MB of L2 cache and will feature a thermal design power of 65 watts, which is quite impressive, given its 3.33GHz core frequency. Moreover, its low thermal envelope will allow enthusiasts to overclock it without problems in order to squeeze some 300-500 MHz using air-based cooling solutions. The Core 2 Duo E8600 will give Intel some maneuver space, as AMD is gearing up for launching its dual- and tri-cores during the second quarter of the year. The B4 silicon revision is promising excellent AMD overclockers.
However, Intel is still keeping its 45-nanometer CPU stash hidden from the eyes of its customers. Although the company has been shipping its 45-nanometer Core 2 Extreme 9650 for some time, there will be little 45-nanometer-based parts to emerge during this quarter.
Only two percent of Intel's consumer-oriented CPUs will be based on the Intel Core 2 Quad 45-nanometer architecture, and only three percent of the chips will belong to the 45-nanometer Core 2 Duo family. The 65-nanometer dual core processor will claim their lion share on the market (about 42 percent of the total shipments), while the 65-nanometer quads will account for only 5 percent of the total shipments.
Moving along, the Dual Core E2000 series will represent 29 percent of Intel's shipments, and the Celeron 400 will only account for 14 percent of total consumer CPU shipments this quarter. The big surprise is yet to come, as 2008 seems to be the first year when Intel will not ship any Pentium-class processor. The company has successfully transitioned to the Core technology in both low- and high level products.
The chip manufacturer seems to have buried the last of the Netbursts, the dual-core Pentium D processor. Intel basically built its reputation on the Pentium brand and terminating the family surely was a tough decision. Pentium D is practically a museum rarity as of 2008, but don't worry, the Core 2 Celeron or the E1000 series give more than the Pentium D could even imagine.
Great..
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