Intel’s plans

Fresh off Core 2’s introduction earlier this summer, Intel’s ramping up from dual-core processing to quad-core, a transition Intel had originally planned to begin in 2007, but has now been bumped up to the end of 2006. The first of these quad-core CPUs will be the Core 2 Extreme QX6700, which was previously codenamed “Kentsfield”:

Intel's CPUs
Q4'06	Q1'07	Q2'07	Q3'07	Q4'07
Core 2 Extreme Edition Quad QX6700 Core 2 Extreme Edition X6900?	Core 2 Quad Q6600 Core 2 Duo E4300	Pentium E1060 Pentium E1040 Pentium E1020	Yorkfield Celeron 400

As we noted on the previous page, Intel’s first-generation quad-core chip, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 won’t be a true quad-core chip, rather it consists of two dual-core processor dies integrated onto one package. This is a little different than Intel’s first dual-core Smithfield core, which consisted of one large die with two cores. The newer approach used for Presler and now Kentsfield helps Intel improve their manufacturing yields.

The downside of course to all of this is that the two dies in Kentsfield are still forced to share available front-side bus (FSB) bandwidth with each other. A simple analogy for Kentfield is that it’s basically two Core 2 Duo E6700 chips crammed into one package, linked via the FSB.

Kentsfield will be clocked at 2.66GHz, just like the Core 2 Duo E6700, with each of its two cores containing 4MB of L2 cache, for a grand total of 8MB L2 on the CPU itself. At IDF last week Intel CEO Paul Otellini confirmed that the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 would ship next month in November, so Intel will be first to ship quad-core. In fact it was later disclosed that Intel plans to ship 1 million quad-core CPUs before AMD ships their first quad-core chip.

With its “Extreme” moniker, it goes without saying that the QX6700 is targeted at the high-end enthusiast segment.

In the table above we’ve also listed a “Core 2 Extreme Edition X6900” chip. We put a question mark at the end because this proposed chip hasn’t been discussed in quite some time. Basically ahead of Core 2’s July launch, Intel disclosed a few forward-looking statements on where they planned on going with their Conroe core powering the Core 2 Extreme and 4MB Core 2 Duo CPUs. One such statement was that the Core 2 Extreme would hit 3.2GHz by the end of the year. The Core 2 Extreme Edition X6900 listed in the table above is that 3.2GHz chip.

Of course, since Intel made that statement, Kentsfield’s release date has been pushed up from Q1’07, to Q4’06. With Kentsfield getting pushed up one quarter, it’s possible that Intel may have shelved their plans to hit 3.2GHz by the end of the year.

They may have even ditched the idea of a 3.2GHz Core 2 Extreme Edition CPU completely.

As performance enthusiasts, we certainly hope that’s not the case, as a 3.2GHz EE chip would easily be the fastest CPU on the planet for gaming, which are typically single-threaded in nature today, but Intel may not feel as compelled to release a 3.2GHz part as they did a few months ago. After all, unless AMD’s got a trick up their sleeve no one knows about, today’s Core 2 Extreme Edition X6800 will likely retain the gaming performance crown for the remainder of the year. The only reason Intel may want to continue with their 3.2GHz EE plans is so they can retain the overall clock speed crown, as everyone expects AMD to hit 3.0GHz by the end of the year.