tech industry

09/19/2006, 10:00am, EDT

Tuesday, September 19th

Intel's "Core 2 Quadro" due in mid-Nov.

Intel is expected by the end of this month to officially name its "Kentsfield" quad-core desktop processor as the "Core 2 Quadro," according to a new report. Confirming earlier reports, the new quad-core chips are expected to arrive in November, ahead of the holiday season and ahead of the expected 2007 rollout. Digitimes reports that the first quad-core processor will be an "Extreme version" designed for high-end gamers and computer enthusiasts: the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 will be available starting in mid-November, according to sources at leading Taiwan motherboard makers. The QX6700, which will be clocked at 2.66GHz, will target the high-end gaming market as well as to counter AMD's fourth quarter introduction of its Socket-AM2 Athlon 64 FX-64 CPU, which will feature speeds of up to 3.0GHz and sport a 2x1MB L2 cache.

As a follow-up, Intel is expected to launch a new 65nm quad-core CPU, the Core 2 Quadro Q6600, in the first quarter of 2007, ahead of AMD's planned launch of server-use quad-core Deerhound in 2007 and desktop quad-core Greyhound in 2008, according to report.

Apple's current generation iMac use a "Merom" Core 2 Duo, while the Mac mini and portables--both the MacBook and MacBook Pro--still use the Core Duo chips. Apple's high-end Mac Pro desktop workstations use the "Woodcrest" Xeon server CPU. A quad-core "Cloverton" version of Xeon is also expected by the of the year and is already shown to be compatible with the current-generation Mac Pros as noted in our 8-core Mac Pro report.

The second-generation quad-core Socket-775 Q6600 CPU will have a core speed of 2.4 GHz, a built-in 2x4MB L2 cache and support a 1066 MHz FSB and also include several advanced Intel technologies, including Speedstep technology, Intel Virtualization and Execute Disable Bit functionalities. The report says that the the quad-core CPUs can be paired with either Intel's high-end 975X or mainstream P965 chipsets, although a minor change in the design of the power-supply module on P965-based motherboards is required.


Filed under: industry

, , 4comments, del.icio.us, slashdot, digg, buzz


4 comments
Reader Reactions (Please use <i></i> for italic text)

subscribe to comments
for this article




Expand All   Global Settings
inevitable!
0
09/19, 10:12am, EDT
xMac!
Junior Member
Joined Feb 2005
User is offline
you know...
0
09/19, 11:10am, EDT
...someone's going to dump one of these into their Mac mini or iMac about as soon as they are available... It's fun to be able to mod Macs again...
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jan 2005
User is offline
Re: you know
0
09/26, 2:48am, EDT
No, nobody is going to 'dump' one of these into an iMac or Mac mini.

For the simple reason that the sockets and required chipsets are different. You can't put a Woodcrest, Clovertown, Kentsfield or Conroe into these Macs. They will only take Yonah, Merom, or Allendale.
Addicted to MacNN
Joined Nov 2000
User is offline
Mac mini...
0
09/27, 5:39pm, EDT
Well, here's hope that Apple will eventually upgrade the Mac mini to the 965 based chipsets, which brings a slew of advantages with it, aside from supporting the quad core cpus - the sockets used by the CPUs are the same, though.

Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jan 2005
User is offline
Your Comments

In order to post comments: If you are a registered member, please login with your MacNN Forums username and password otherwise please uncheck the checkbox below.


Registered Member?
macnn forums login:

macnn forums password:

Not a member of the MacNN forums? Register now for free.

RSS Feeds

Have the latest content delivered to your desktop via RSS. Use the links below to get access to a specific blog, news, or reviews feed.



  MacNN -all

  MacNN Reviews

  MacNN Podcasts

  iPodNN

  Electronista

  Left Lane News
Want To Sell Your Laptop? Any Condition - receive Top Cash. Get an instant quote. Free shipping www.CashForLaptops.com
Buy from The Apple Store, iTunes.com, Amazon.com, TechDepot, OfficeDepot, Computers4Sure, or donate.