Intel Core Duo

[blu at vl.com (Tom Metro)]

Mark J. Dulcey wrote:
> That said, though, the Turion64 series can't quite keep up with the 
> Intel Core Duo 2 in speed or battery life...

I'm surprised this is the only mention of the Intel Core Duo in this 
thread. It seems we (at least the more technical users) have all gotten 
so used to turning to AMD, that it's hard to switch gears. I've been 
using AMD CPUs exclusively since the mid-90's I think, but have bought 
or built two systems with Intel CPUs in 2006.

I've posted previously on the list about the benchmarks showing the 
performance and power advantages of the Intel Core 2 Duo line. I've also 
mentioned the Intel Core Duo, which is still commonly used in laptops.

Of course which CPU is best is somewhat fluid, and I'd recommend reading 
up on the latest news at a few of the hardware guide sites.


> ...and the Core Duo 2 also has 64-bit capability. So you'll want to
> have a look at Intel-based laptops as well. (But specifically the
> Core Duo 2; earlier generations of Intel laptop chips were not 64-bit
> capable.)

I haven't personally exercised the 64-bit capability of my Core Duo 
laptop, but my research showed that the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo are 
essentially the same architecture, with the latter offering a bit better 
performance. Based on that I'd expect it to handle 64-bit similar to the 
Core 2 Duo.


> (I know that the previous generation of Intel chips, the Pentium 4 and 
> Pentium D, were not good performers running 64-bit code.)

I'd avoid those chips anyway due to comparatively poor performance and 
power usage. You see a lot of Celeron M laptops still around, yet they 
cost nearly as much as the Core Duo models.

Something I would recommend doping, especially for a "desktop 
replacement" laptop, is trying to get a model with a CPU that supports 
hardware virtualization. Christoph mentioned in his recent talk that 
some of the Intel Core Duo CPUs at the low-end don't support it, which I 
wasn't aware of.

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/

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