![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, November 01, 2006
- Author:
- Paul Jastrzebski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad Core QX6700 Preview
Intel today launches the world's first quad-core processor rightly dubbed the Core 2 Extreme Quad Core. What happens when you strap two Core 2 Duo processors onto one LGA 775 processor substrate? As you might imagine, you have CPU power on tap.
Core 2 Quad Inside
Now that we know a little more about the background of the Kentsfield core, it’s time to take a look at the matter at hand, the actual Core 2 Quad QX6700 chip. Since Kentsfield is quite literally two Conroe chips in one package, Kentsfield’s transistor count tops in at 582 million (291 million transistors per core), with a die surface area of 284mm2, (182 mm2 per core).
As was the case when Intel put two Prescott chips together to form Smithfield, Intel had to drop the clock speed on its Conroe cores by 10%. This is done so that Kentsfield would stay within a 120 watt thermal envelope, while at the same time allowing the top rated 65nm die (chips that the fabrication facility rates as being able to work at exceptionally high frequencies) to become Core 2 Duo X6800’s. Once again, by using this “stepping stone” approach, Intel maintains maximum flexibility and can produce quad-core or dual-core chips in its current 65nm plants according to how they see market needs and customer demand.
With that said, the 10% clock frequency drops makes the Core 2 Quad QX6700 clock in at 2.66GHz, a little under 300MHz slower than the 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 dual-core processor.
Future of the Product Line & Pricing
We can once again refer to Intel’s dual-core Smithfield playbook to have a gauge on the pricing and marketing of the Core 2 Quad QX6700 and the rest of the Extreme Edition product line. When Intel rolled out their first high end dual-core CPU, the Pentium 840 Extreme Edition, they also kept around the single core, Pentium 4 3.73 Extreme Edition for almost a year. This allowed end users to chose a CPU based on either quicker performance now (3.73 Extreme Edition) or a future proof dual core that will be faster later (840 Extreme Edition). And of course, the same will happen with the QX6700 and X6800 chips. Both CPU’s will be priced at $999 and Intel will be keeping the Core 2 Extreme X6800 around at least into Q3 of 2007. This will once again give end users the choice of faster performance now or future proofed performance for the months ahead (in many cases faster performance now, but we’ll take a closer look at that a bit later).
Core 2 Quad Features
What about the front side bus speeds? The Core 2 Quad QX6700, like the Core 2 Extreme X6800, is running on a 1066MHz front side bus. And the other stuff? Since the QX6700 is a Conroe derivative, all the great features we’ve seen Intel introduce into their chips over the last few years are already incorporated into the Kentsfield core. Execute Disabled Bit security, SSE3 SIMD extensions, and Intel EM64T support are all included under the hood. The CPU is built on a LGA775 (Socket T) platform, and will work in every motherboard that supports Conroe based chips, with some of the older boards simply requiring a BIOS update.
As you may have heard, Intel has already launched their latest revision of the Intel 975XBX2 Bad Axe 2 motherboard, the motherboard we used for testing the Core 2 Quad QX6700. The new revision includes several BIOS updates and enhanced support for DDR2 800 memory.
