Inside The Core 2 Extreme QX6700

Many detractors have claimed that the Kentsfield is not a true quad-core processor, like the upcoming AMD K8L processor. Well, there may be some truth in that. Take a look at this Intel comparison from one of their IDF papers.

While the Pentium D consists of two separate cores linked together in a single package, the Conroe processor is really two cores integrated in a single die. However, the Kentsfield looks like nothing more than two Conroe processors cobbled into a single package.

If you compare their specifications in our Desktop CPU Comparison Guide, the Kentsfield looks exactly like a combination of two Conroes.

Even this picture of the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor with the heatspreader removed shows the two processor dies.

But no matter what is said, there are four processor cores in the Kentsfield processor. So, Intel still deserves the honour of being the first out with a quad-core processor, even if it's a crude cobbling of two dual-core processors.

With that said, there are disadvantages for not having the four cores completely integrated. For one thing, the 8MB L2 cache are not shareable between four cores. Instead, each core pair shares a 4MB L2 cache. This increases bus traffic because the two L2 caches cannot share data.

Specifications