Core 2 Duo Story. The Memron to Be Unleashed

At the end of last week, Intel released its mostly expected Core 2 Duo Memron, a processor especially developed for notebooks, which will be soon integrated in mobile workstations designed by leaders of the technology market such as Dell, Lenovo or Sony.

"Actual specifications for Merom and Conroe remain nearly identical with the majority of Core 2 Duo processors coming with 4MB of L2 cache and running on an 800MHz front-side bus. Even low-voltage versions of Core 2 Duo such as the L7500 model will run on an 800MHz front-side bus and come with 4MB of L2 cache. Core speed however is reduced from 2.2GHz in the T7500 model down to 1.6GHz in the L7500 model. All Core 2 Duo processors will be virtualization technology enabled and be fully prepared to run 64-bit applications. Like Conroe, the 4MB of L2 cache is shared between the two processor cores," reports Daily Tech.

According to several Intel representatives, the Core 2 Duo processors will take over more than 55% of the mobile processor segment by 2007, becoming the leaders and the most profitable products released by Intel. Furthermore, the company estimates that soon enough, the dual core processors' mass production, the ones made for notebooks, will go over 99% of all production output.

Looks like the first Core 2 Duo notebooks will feature the Napa platform, but the company will pass on to the GM965 and PM965 Express chipsets and add the ICH8M and ICH8M Enhanced Southbridges, according to Daily Tech. In addition, the Santa Rosa will be the substitute for the previously used 945GM Exprses chipset along with ICH7M and ICH7-DH.