Four mainstream and one high-end processor models will be released to the market on July 27. Core 2 Extreme X6800 is the cavalry (expect to spend one grand on it), while Core 2 Duo E6700 to E6300 represent the main strike force.

All Core 2 processors run at a Front Side Bus (FSB) speed of 266 MHz now, whereas most Pentium 4 and Pentium D models typically run at 200 MHz. At four data transfers per cycle (quad data rate mode) this results in a marketing-friendly FSB1066 bus speed, delivering a 8.5 GB/s bandwidth. Except for the entry level, all models have a 4 MB L2 cache that is used by both processing cores. All processors support Intel's 64 bit instruction set (EM64T), the streaming extensions (SSE2 and SSE3), the virtualization technology (VT) and the Execute Disable bit (XD). In addition to these functional features, all models support the latest thermal and energy management features such as the Thermal Monitor 2 (TM2), the Enhanced Halt State (C1E) and Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST).

Core 2 Extreme X6800

The Extreme Edition processor is the only version that allows the user to alter the multiplier, so she or he can overclock or underclock it easily.

Core 2 Duo Series

Core 2 Duo runs at between 1.86 GHz and 2.66 GHz.