Pros & Cons
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- Larger L2 cache.
- Good overclocking potential.
- SSE4 instructions and architectural improvements.
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- Performance gains limited over current generation CPUs in current apps.
- Expensive.
The last time Intel moved an existing CPU line to a new manufacturing process was with the ill-fated Prescott CPU. Prescott was a derivative of the Pentium 4 architecture. Those were in the bad old days, where clock frequency was king and real men ran processors that generated blast furnace heat levels. Moving to 65nm was supposed to mitigate the Pentium 4's tendency to eat power like a pig in a slop trough. Alas, Prescott proved even hotter than its predecessor.
It wasn't until Intel shipped the Core 2 processor line that the company redeemed itself in the eyes of consumers and performance enthusiasts. And what a redemption: faster performance and lower power, albeit at lower clock rates. The Core 2 CPUs haven't officially hit the rarified clock rates of the old Pentium Extreme Edition 965, which ran at 3.73GHz and could fry eggs. Core 2 didn't need to run at those clock rates. Even at one gigahertz or less, Core 2 Duo proved faster and more efficient.
Now Intel is moving to a new manufacturing process: the "tick" in Intel's tick-tock mantra, where "tick" represents a move to a new, higher density manufacturing process, and the "tock" is a new microarchitecture. In this case, the move is to 45nm.
Let's take a look at what the move to 45nm will bring, and then we'll review the updated Core 2 architecture as it applies to Yorkfield—A.K.A. the Core 2 Extreme QX9650.