Buzzwords de-Buzzed: Intel Technologies Explained

Written on the 26th of February 2007 by Scott Jones : IT Leaders

In the never-ending race for faster processing ability, Intel has come up with a lot of buzz words to explain it's newest technology.  Recently it has become quite confusing so I have summarised several commonly used terms in this article.  This article may not read easily to the lay person but will be of use to those who wish to cut through a salesman's fluff and see the real value of these features to them.

All of the definitions below are of technologies employed in Intel's recent processors (CPUs).

Hyper Threading      
 Simulated two logical cores, allowing for SOME multi-threaded instruction processing, but not to the extent of Dual Core technology.
 Will show up in Windows as 2 CPUs.  
   
Pentium D      
 The equivalent of 2 x Pentium 4 processors on a single die.     
 Similar to Dual Core Xeon but without Hyperthreading. 
 No single application speed increase over P4, but will improve
  multi-tasking speed (eg, switching between different applications.)
 Shows up in Windows as 2 CPUs.
 Succeeded by Core 2 Duo.   
  
Pentium Extreme Edition      
 A Pentium D with Hyperthreading enabled, meaning Windows
 will see it as 4 logical CPUs.     
 Also it has an unlocked CPU multiplier for overclocking.
 Expensive and used by hard core gamers and media editors.
 Succeeded by "Core 2 Extreme", which is 2 x Dual Core CPUs,
  touted as "Quad Core". 
    
Dual Core Xeon      
The Server version of a Pentium D 
True dual cores on a single CPU die, with HyperThreading too.  
Separate L2 memory cache for each core which is slower than the
  shared cache of "Core" technology. 
 Succeeded by the Core technology used in 5100, 5300 and later Xeons.
 Shows up in Windows as 2 CPUs per processor, thus a Server with
 "2 x Dual Core Xeons" will show up as 4 CPUs.
 
     
Core / Core 2 Architecture           
 Intel claims 80% boost in performance, while reducing power consumption
  by 20% relative to the Pentium D    
 Only active portions of CPU have power running through them.        
 Cache is shared between cores for faster data fetching.
 No longer uses HyperThreading - new technology.
 Shows up in Windows as 2 CPUs per installed processor.
      
Quad Core / Core 2 Quad       
 Equivalent to 2 x 5100 series Xeon CPUs on a single die. (Core tech.)        
 Cache is shared within pairs of cores, but not between pairs of cores.         
 Used by Core 2 Extreme (desktop CPU) and Core 2 Quad (server CPU)   
  
Pentium M vs Celeron M vs Centrino           
 Celeron has less Cache but is otherwise identical to Pentium M, making them a good value option when used with plenty of system RAM.  
         
 Centrino is a PACKAGE not a processor. It is a Pentium M or Celeron M bundled with an  Intel 855 chipset and Intel Pro (802.11b..10Mb) Wireless chips.  There are other chipset combinations  bundled with the Pentium M / Celeron M which work as well or better, such as a Pentium M with Atheros 802.11g (54Mb) Wireless networking, so Centrino is not everything.          
           
 The new Core 2 Duo processors are brilliant on notebooks with big processing ability and the best power consumption properties seen yet.  Clearly the best choice for both power users flogging their notebooks hard, AND road warriors who want longest battery life.          

 Pipeline
Pipeline is a list of all stages a given instruction must go through in order to be fully executed.  On some processors, a longer pipeline is quoted as an improved feature, but it actually means instructions take longer to be processed. 

In the race for faster clock speeds between 2004-2006, Intel increased the length of its processors' pipelines in order to squeeze more clock speed.  Thus the numbers sounded impressive, but rival CPU maker AMD produced ultimately faster CPUs partly because the pipeline was shorter.

On Intel's new "Core" technology the pipeline is reconstructed, shortened and improved for the first time in several years, meaning significant improvements in real-world processing times.