Intel quad-core Kentsfield to be named Core 2 Quadro
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 an overseas report.
Citing sources at leading Taiwan motherboard makers, DigiTimes claims the first model will be an Extreme version, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700, which will be available starting in mid-November.
"The QX6700, which will be clocked at 2.66 GHz, 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 (3.0 GHz core speed, 2x1MB L2 cache)," according to the report.
In a bid to trump AMD's planned launch of its quad-core Deerhound server chip in 2007 and quad-core Greyhound desktop varient in 2008, Intel in the first quarter of 2007 is also expected to launch a new 65nm quad-core CPU called the Core 2 Quadro Q6600.
"The 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 (front side bus), plus Enhanced Intel Speedstep technology, Intel Virtualization and Execute Disable Bit functionalities," DigiTimes sources said.
Those sources added that 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.
Intel reportedly declined to comment on the report.
Citing sources at leading Taiwan motherboard makers, DigiTimes claims the first model will be an Extreme version, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700, which will be available starting in mid-November.
"The QX6700, which will be clocked at 2.66 GHz, 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 (3.0 GHz core speed, 2x1MB L2 cache)," according to the report.
In a bid to trump AMD's planned launch of its quad-core Deerhound server chip in 2007 and quad-core Greyhound desktop varient in 2008, Intel in the first quarter of 2007 is also expected to launch a new 65nm quad-core CPU called the Core 2 Quadro Q6600.
"The 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 (front side bus), plus Enhanced Intel Speedstep technology, Intel Virtualization and Execute Disable Bit functionalities," DigiTimes sources said.
Those sources added that 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.
Intel reportedly declined to comment on the report.
Comments
The Mac Quadra
I hope the availability of consumer and pro multicore chips will push developers to write heavily-threaded apps. As difficult as it may be to write such an app, it has to be done...and it will separate the boys from the men (weed out the bad devs.)
Next up from apple:
The Mac Quadra
Indeed.
Oh come on now...to target the high end gaming market with a quad-core chip, games have to first be SMP-aware. How many games utilize more than 1 core very efficiently? Not many.
Right now this is true, however, going forward the games will be better designed for multiple cores. World of Warcraft (for example) has been make [slow but] steady improvements and plan on more over time.
Of course the real reason for more cores is not so much the gaming market, but other markets, such as photography and video..
Oh come on now...to target the high end gaming market with a quad-core chip, games have to first be SMP-aware. How many games utilize more than 1 core very efficiently? Not many.
With XBox360 and PS3 heavily multi-core, you can expect this to change quickly. It is a chicken-and-egg problem. If there are few machines that have multiple cores, there is little to be gained by going through the effort of writing software that takes advantage of it. And if you have a short sighted attitude then if there is no software to take advantage of it, there is no point in having multi-core hardware. On the other hand, hardware stays working for years at a time so there is an opportunity for software to catch up and continually eek more out of the hardware you already have.
Of course the real reason for more cores is not so much the gaming market, but other markets, such as photography and video..
That's not what Intel seems to think.
nvidia already has the quadro name?
Wasn't quadro a generic word in one of the Latin-based languages? It's just a matter of whether nVidia filed a trademark that applies to CPUs.
That's not what Intel seems to think.
I think they are targetting the kind of gamers that would buy Alienware's high end systems.
Right now, the effect of a quad core on games is pretty small, I agree, it's a chicken & egg situation. Gamers have to demand better multi-core support..
so which mac will this go in? you think we will see a devoted mac to gaming. that would really increase sales. ....the odds are slim that they can fit this in a imac right.
Not without them changing their policies. I don't think the Intel quad chip with proper cooling would fit in an iMac anyway. It has the cooling demands of two of their dual core desktop chips so it's going to need an enclosure that is a lot larger than what can be stuffed behind a 30", quietly and aesthetically.
so which mac will this go in? you think we will see a devoted mac to gaming. that would really increase sales. ....the odds are slim that they can fit this in a imac right.
to bad that with a intel chip set you have no sli
Not without them changing their policies. I don't think the Intel quad chip with proper cooling would fit in an iMac anyway. It has the cooling demands of two of their dual core desktop chips so it's going to need an enclosure that is a lot larger than what can be stuffed behind a 30", quietly and aesthetically.
I disagree. The current conroe chips have EXCELLENT cooling. They run around 28degrees idle and 34 degrees (cels) under load for an hour. Which makes this even cooler (no pun intended) is this is JUST WITH A HEATSINK AND NO FAN!! Crazy eh? According to anandtech the kentsfield and clovertown chips run about the same temps as their little brothers conroe and woodcrest.
Even though they will be the same temps... keep in mind that conroe isn't in the current iMacs... merom is. Which is the lower power core 2 duo. The heat difference between conroe and merom is minimal... the big difference is power consumption. I find it intriguing that apple didn't stick a conroe in there. Maybe Merom is cheaper? Maybe iMac is designed for low power consumption (small ps)? Either way, merom will be quad core as well around this time.
So yah you can expect a quad core iMac sometime in the future. It probably won't be kentsfield though.
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 an overseas report.
Citing sources at leading Taiwan motherboard makers, DigiTimes claims the first model will be an Extreme version, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700, which will be available starting in mid-November.
"The QX6700, which will be clocked at 2.66 GHz, 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 (3.0 GHz core speed, 2x1MB L2 cache)," according to the report.
In a bid to trump AMD's planned launch of its quad-core Deerhound server chip in 2007 and quad-core Greyhound desktop varient in 2008, Intel in the first quarter of 2007 is also expected to launch a new 65nm quad-core CPU called the Core 2 Quadro Q6600.
"The 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 (front side bus), plus Enhanced Intel Speedstep technology, Intel Virtualization and Execute Disable Bit functionalities," DigiTimes sources said.
Those sources added that 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.
Intel reportedly declined to comment on the report.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
amd 4x4 should be out by then and that will have a lot for cpu and ram bandwith then intel.
Also amd quad-core cpu will be two dual core cpus on the same die. It will true quad-core.
amd 4x4 should be out by then and that will have a lot for cpu and ram bandwith then intel.
Also amd quad-core cpu will be two dual core cpus on the same die. It will true quad-core.
We'll see about that. All of the AMD roadmaps I've seen state otherwise. On top of that AMD was supposed to start 65nm process development on cpu's in 2005, early this year they were stated to do it by the end of 2006, now there have been reports of it being sometime in 2007. Time will tell.
I disagree. The current conroe chips have EXCELLENT cooling. They run around 28degrees idle and 34 degrees (cels) under load for an hour. Which makes this even cooler (no pun intended) is this is JUST WITH A HEATSINK AND NO FAN!! Crazy eh? According to anandtech the kentsfield and clovertown chips run about the same temps as their little brothers conroe and woodcrest.
Let me guess, was that in a standard ATX / BTX case? Those are cavernous compared to the iMac.
Even though they will be the same temps... keep in mind that conroe isn't in the current iMacs... merom is. Which is the lower power core 2 duo. The heat difference between conroe and merom is minimal... the big difference is power consumption. I find it intriguing that apple didn't stick a conroe in there. Maybe Merom is cheaper? Maybe iMac is designed for low power consumption (small ps)? Either way, merom will be quad core as well around this time.
Heat is power. For every watt of power put into a computer system, one watt of heat has to be removed. A Conroe at full load will produce twice the heat as a Merom. A Kentsfield at full load load will produce about twice the heat as a Conroe. I they all end up at the same temperature, then the cooling system has to move more heat to maintain that temperature.
Merom is not cheaper. It's a little slower and a lot more expensive.
Oh come on now...to target the high end gaming market with a quad-core chip, games have to first be SMP-aware. How many games utilize more than 1 core very efficiently? Not many.
I hope the availability of consumer and pro multicore chips will push developers to write heavily-threaded apps. As difficult as it may be to write such an app, it has to be done...and it will separate the boys from the men (weed out the bad devs.)
When they were testing these processors last month they were using video encoding, and rendering, and mostly things that Apple's Pro Applications, and Adobe's CS applications do, and there was like 70% overall increase in performance.
I can't even begin to remember where I saw it, but this right after I started saying Apple probably would skip Kentsfiled, and Clovertown, and wait until the end of 2007 when intel released the **true quad core processors** with the ODMC before the switched away from Woodcrest.
(**Kentsfiled, and Clovertown are two dual cores on one die - the following processors will be quad cores, and have an On Die Memory Controller according to previous reports from intel**)