Penryn
From Mac Guides
Penryn is a mobile chip developed by Intel. Intel has completed the design phase and promises to get the product to the market in the second half of 2007. The desktop and server It is a die shrink from 65nm (Core Duo, Core 2 Duo) to 45nm, which allows more transistors to fit on the same piece of silicon increasing performance per watt. The processor features up to four processing cores and will be built on the Core Microarchitecture and will also feature an expanded instruction set to make it more efficient at handling media files.
Contents |
Processor Details
Penryn promises several improvements to the Core 2 Duo series of processors, all of which will not only increase performance per watt, but will also be faster than it's predecessor even when the clock speed is identical. DDR3 RAM support, Hyper-Threading and improved L2 caches and FSB speeds are some of the major enhancements.
Kentsfield and Wolfdale
Penryn has two confirmed desktop variants. Yorkfield, the successor to Kentsfield, and Wolfdale, the dual-core successor to Conroe. Yorkfield will offer clock speeds of up to 3.33 GHz while Wolfdale will initially be available in a variety of clock speeds up to 3.16 GHz.
Recent benchmarks show that Wolfdale consistently outperforms an identically clocked Conroe processor in all applications by 10% on average. In addition to this, it was noted that under full load, Wolfdale not only consumes 24 watts less power but runs up to 12 degrees Celsius cooler as well. Both Wolfdale and Kentsfield's boost in performance is partly due to the improved FSB speed and larger L2 cache (see table).
| Current Core 2 Duos | Penryn-based Core 2 Duos | |
|---|---|---|
| L2 Cache | 2 MB or 4 MB | 6 MB or 12 MB |
| Front Side Bus (FSB) | 800 MHz, 1066 MHz or 1333 MHz | Up to 1600 MHz |
Mobile Penryns
The new mobile Core 2 Duos, set to come out early 2008, will initially retain the 800 MHz FSB, but offer a larger L2 cache. 2.1 GHz and 2.4 GHz models with 3 MB L2 caches in addition to 2.5 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 2.8 GHz models with 6 MB L2 caches have been confirmed. In Q2 2008, Intel will offer 2.53 GHz, 2.8 GHz and 3.06 GHz models with an improved 1066 MHz FSB.
Also, a series of lower-voltage mobile processors have been confirmed. With a 25W TDP, these processors will be offered in 2.13 GHz, 2.4 GHz and 2.53 GHz models with 3 MB L2 caches and the 1066 MHz FSB.
Xeons
Intel Xeon processors targetted at servers and workstations are currently being used in the Mac Pro. New Penryn-based models are confirmed to have a 1600 MHz FSB, with the E5462 and E5472 being clocked at 2.8 GHz and 3 GHz respectively.
Benchmarks
Benchmarks for pre-production dual- and quad-core 3.33 GHz Penryn processors have been published. The quad-core Penryn processors show a benefit of over 15% compared to a Core 2 Extreme QX8600 clocked at 2.93 GHz in most applications despite the 13.7% increase in clock speed. [1] [2]
Intel's Roadmap
Penryn will be the last Intel processor based on the Core Microarchitecture. The successor to the Core Microarchitecture will be the Nehalem core.
