Into the Core: Intel's next-generation microarchitecture

[Kougar]

Since I've been spamming enough threads, I figured I should make one for everyone else to spam out of fairness :mrgreen:

Seriously, if you haven't seen this article it should interest anyone that is more than a little interested in Conroe! http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/core.ars In it .Ars explains the new Conroe architecture, and even how Intel has finally removed two of the long outstanding bottlenecks in the traditional "Pentium" designs.

Now, do not get the "Core" architecture mixed up with Intel's "Core Duo" and "Core Solo" brands! There is no relation at all, other than Intel confusing people as usual! I'll say it worked pretty well on me... If it helps, think of the Core Duo and Core Solo line as just a Pentium M-2 processor in single and dual packages.

The mobile/desktop/server "Core" architecture is the Merom/Conroe/Woodcrest processors, respectively.

[Kougar]

Thought about making a new thread but posting here seemed more fitting.

Intel will also be introducing three new chips over the summer to refresh its product lines. Woodcrest for servers will be released in June, Conroe for desktops in July and Merom for notebooks in August.

Intel CEO Announces Widespread Restructuring (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2015)

[Kougar]

I stumbled across this link. One person over at the THG forums is assembling all the info on Conroe, and actually has collected quite a bit of it! Conroe fanboys welcome (http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Collection-Conroe-Data-Core-Duo-Core-Extreme-ftopict183765.html) :p

If you want non-Intel sanctioned benchmarks, that is the place!

I'll snip this one out at random:

Media Encoding (NEW!): http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1439079&postcount=12
Brand new data, here we see the 2.13Ghz Stock Conroe system encoding a video using TMPGEnc 3.0 Express in 20:54, while it takes an overclocked 2.9GHZ FX-60 21:06 to encode the same exact video. I'll state that again. A 2.13GHz Conroe is faster than a 2.9GHZ FX-60 in media encoding! I'm looking forward to a clock-for-clock comparison.

EDIT: here is the clock for clock comparison: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1440963&postcount=188
Recap: 2.9GHZ FX-60 takes 21:06. 2.9GHz Conroe takes 15:22 for the same encoding task.

I'd say those benchmarks are extremely ironic... Instead of AMD sitting at 2ghz running circles around a 3.2ghz Intel processor, it's a Intel 2.13ghz part running circles around a 2.9ghz AMD processor...

[Kougar]

I'd like to also point out... a 2.13ghz Conroe will be $244 at launch... while the FX-60 is sitting pretty at $1,011 on Newegg with the FX-62 to run ever higher... ;)

Furthermore, the 2.13ghz Conroe only has 2x2mb of cache. The higher clocked Conroes will come with 2x4mb of cache.

<snip>
3DMark06 CPU Test: http://coolaler.kj.idv.tw/merom/QLZT/XP64/5.gif
FX-60 @ 3.2GHz gets 2380 3DMark06 CPU score
Merom @ 3.2GHz gets 2833 3DMark06 CPU score

[Kougar]

I suppose I'm breaking some kind of forum etiquette by posting replies to myself like this... But the topic of which 975X boards that currently offer Conroe support came up and I finally found the darn article again here: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mainboards/display/20060425175704.html (http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mainboards/display/20060425175704.html)

i975X Based Mainboards Acquire Conroe Support.
Intel, ASRock and MSI at the Forefront

Although Intel claims that i975X chipsets as well as the not yet announced i965 chipsets should all support Conroe processors, the mainboards based on the former one that are available in stores these days may be incompatible with the promising CPUs. As we have already told you earlier the problem lies with the new modified voltage regulator circuitry that the mainboard need (to meet the VRM11 requirements). Luckily, the mainboard vendors decided to get ready for the upcoming processors in advance, so some of them are already able to offer the users their Conroe-ready solutions.

Also, a more current revision to Conroe specs and pricing information is:



Core Extreme Edition Series - 1333MHz FSB, EM64T, EIST, VT, SSE4
Core Extreme Edition - 3.33GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 32+32KB L1, 4MB L2, Dual Core, TDP 95W - $999 - Q3

Core E6000 Series - 1066MHz FSB, EM64T, EIST, VT, SSE4
Core E6800 - 2.93GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 32+32KB L1, 4MB L2, Dual Core, TDP 65W - $720 - Q4
Core E6700 - 2.67GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 32+32KB L1, 4MB L2, Dual Core, TDP 65W - $529 - Q3
Core E6600 - 2.40GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 32+32KB L1, 4MB L2, Dual Core, TDP 65W - $315 - Q3
Core E6400 - 2.13GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 32+32KB L1, 2MB L2, Dual Core, TDP 65W - $240 - Q3
Core E6300 - 1.86GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 32+32KB L1, 2MB L2, Dual Core, TDP 65W - $210 - Q3

Core E4000 Series - 800MHz FSB, EM64T, EIST, SSE4
Core E4200 - 1.6GHz, 800MHz FSB, 32+32KB L1, 2MB L2, Dual Core, TDP 45W - $___ - Q3


Edit: Hmm, anyone else besides me interested in a AGP platform for Conroe? Apparently Asrock has one of those too! Now if only it would be one of those true hybrids that can fully support both AGP and PCIe cards, I'd be all but sold right now...