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Intel Core 2 Duo Chips Announced

Intel announced the long anticipated Core 2 Duo processors today. Intel announced 10 new chips including 5 designed for latops (Merom) and 5 for desktops (Conroe).

Core 2 Duo runs at slower clock speeds than Pentium-era chips, but is still more productive because it handles more calculations per clock cycle, said Sean Tucker, a product manager at HP. Thanks to that slower speed, Core 2 Duo chips need less electricity, drawing just 65 watts compared to the Pentium 4s 95 watts and Pentium Ds 130 watts.


Intel has already started shipping Core 2 Duo chips to manufacturers, so the first Core 2 Duo Desktop machines should reach consumers in early August. Meanwhile Core 2 Duo laptops will reach consumers by the end of August.

Conroe and Merom are successors to the Core Duo processor which was introduced by Intel early this year. The Core Duo (Yonah) was the first Intel chip used in Apple's switch to intel earlier this year.

At present Apple's lineup is as follows:

Intel: MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini: Core Duo or Core Solo (Yonah)
PowerPC: PowerMac, Xserve: PowerPC 970 (G5)

Newer processors from Intel sharing a new architecture now include:
Core 2 Duo mobile (Merom)
Core 2 Duo desktop (Conroe)
Xeon 5100 (Woodcrest)

Woodcrest is rumored to be used in the Mac Pro, which is expected be released at WWDC 2006. Apple's use of the Core 2 Duo is not yet clear, but the Core 2 Duo mobile (Merom) is pin compatible with the current Core Duo (Yonah). This means that Apple could easily upgrade the existing Intel-based Macs to the newer processor with no design changes.

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72 months ago
All of the reviews of the Core 2 Duo say that it crushes AMD in the desktop arena. This is good news, now we just need new iMacs, MacBook Pros, and Mac Pros.
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72 months ago
Yay! Chips that don't suck and are fast! (I hate P4s)
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72 months ago
this makes me happy. jumping up and down for wwdc...

:) :) :)
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72 months ago
C'mon Steve, wow us...
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72 months ago
So since these new mobile chips are pin-compatible with the Yonah chips (like the one in my MBP), will it be easy/possible to simply buy one and upgrade myself?
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72 months ago
WWDC, WWDC, WWDC.... Or perhaps another one of those unannounced bumps.. I really don't like them though, I wish Apple would go back to big announcements on things like this, but yeah...that's life. Now lets have the upgrade!

So since these new mobile chips are pin-compatible with the Yonah chips (like the one in my MBP), will it be easy/possible to simply buy one and upgrade myself?

Yes. I believe people who have gotten their hands on Core 2 Duo beta chips have put them in their mini's with no difference (except a massive speed boost)
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72 months ago
Assuming August 7 as an announcement date of new systems, the waiting is killer.
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72 months ago
So are we really going to get ALL of these new toys come WWDC? Leopard preview, Merom laptops, Core2/Woodcrest Mac Pros, Core2 Imacs (oh, and maybe a movie download add to iTunes) That sounds like an awful lot of stuff to cover in such a short period of time. What do people think about timelines for introduction here?
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72 months ago
at last, I may be able to build a system that will run Vista well!
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72 months ago

Yes. I believe people who have gotten their hands on Core 2 Duo beta chips have put them in their mini's with no difference (except a massive speed boost)


Only the Mac Mini and the iMac's processor can be replaced. the MacBook and MacBook Pro have the processor soldered into the motherboard.
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