Revolutionary Performance with Intel® Digital Media Boost

The Intel Core Duo processor features micro-architectural enhancements for improved floating point capability, including instruction optimizations and performance enhancements for existing Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2). In addition to enhancing the performance of existing Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2), there are 13 new instructions that further extend the capabilities of Intel® processor technology. These new instructions are called Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSE3), first introduced on the Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor, with their implementation fully optimized specifically for the Intel Core Duo processor Architecture. These instructions accelerate activities such as complex arithmetic, graphics, and synchronization of multiple threads. The Intel Core Duo processor also features other floating point performance enhancements such as a faster integer divide and updated micro-ops fusion. These new micro-architectural enhancements lead to improved throughput and performance.

Adding a second execution core brings a significant performance benefit. But Intel engineers did not stop there. They understood that the digital processing demands continue to grow. That's why they included micro-architectural enhancements and additional instructions in the Intel® Core™ Duo processor.

Two execution cores combined with Intel® Digital Media Boost can significantly accelerate a diverse variety of processing-intensive tasks such as intense gaming, audio/video/image processing, scientific applications and 3D graphics.

Revolutionary Performance with Intel® Smart Cache

It's relatively straightforward to design a level-2 (L2) cache dedicated to a single execution core. The Intel® Pentium® M processor does that today. But with the Intel® Core™ Duo processor, Intel decided not to provide a dedicated cache for each execution core. Instead, our engineers chose to do something revolutionary, and design a cache that was intelligently shared between both execution cores. This way, the Intel Core Duo processor met our objectives -- deliver breakthrough performance while optimizing energy efficiency.

Intel® Smart Cache is designed so the cache performs optimally in any type of application environment, whether running a single application or running multiple demanding applications at the same time. In any scenario, the cache is dynamically configured to optimize system performance and power efficiency, enabling the user greater system responsiveness and battery life.

Revolutionary Power Management with Intel® Dynamic Power Coordination

It's the norm to ask engineers to make logical trade offs between performance and battery life. In designing the Intel® Core™ Duo processor, Intel's engineers were given the challenge of not making such tradeoffs. Rather, the design target was breakthrough performance while at the same time optimizing energy efficiency & enabling longer battery life. We wanted the consumer to have it all. The Intel Core Duo processor is a testament that Intel engineers met the challenge.

Just about anyone who uses a laptop knows that long battery life is an important attribute. Intel Core Duo processors enable users to have the best of both worlds—breakthrough performance and improved battery life. Decisions are a lot easier when you don't have to make any compromises.