Intel announces P965 Core 2 Duo chipset, sub-1 watt processor

Taipei (Taiwan) - Intel senior vice president Anand Chandrasekher officially introduced the P965, a chipset that will be offered for various computer platforms based on Intel's upcoming Core 2 Duo E6000 processor ("Conroe"). Chandrasekher also said that Intel will be offering a new ultra-low voltage version of its current Core Duo processor, which will consume less than 1 watt on average.

Intel is counting down the days until the launch of its new Core microarchitecture - industry sources recently suggested that Intel will introduce the desktop version Conroe on 23 July - so it's no surprise that we will be seeing lots of Core 2 Duo systems at Computex. In his opening day keynote, Chandrasekher officially announced not that much, but at least another puzzle piece of the Core 2 Duo environment.

P965, formerly code-named "Broadwater," is one chipset that will be available with Core 2 Duos; according to roadmaps recently seen by TG Daily especially with computer systems built around consumer systems and Intel's Viiv entertainment PC specification. The P965 apparently will be offered alongside the 975X chipset for "premium" systems, while mainstream computers will rely on a different 965 variant, the G965. A third 965 chipset, the Q965, will surface in business PCs and higher end desktop systems that are equipped with Core 2 E6000 and Core 2 Extreme CPUs.

All 965 chipsets support DDR2 memory up to 800 MHz and FSB800 and FSB1066. There is a persistent rumor that the Q965 version as well as the 975X chipset will also be used in supporting FSB, but Intel has yet to confirm such statements. At this time, Intel documents distributed to partners only differentiate the Q965 by support Active Management Technology "with a circuit breaker."

Chandrasekher did not provide new information about the availability of Core 2 Duo processors, but confirmed that server, desktop and laptop processors based on the Core microarchitecture will be shipping to system builders this month, in July and August, respectively. "We are bringing a massive amount of new products and technologies to the market starting today that will change the game in terms of what technology can do for you," the executive said.

As previously reported by TG Daily, Chandrasekher also officially disclosed that Intel will introduce the Intel Core2 Extreme processor at speeds of 2.93 GHz in July, and a faster 3.2 GHz version later in the year.

Another official announcement was the note of a new ultra low voltage Intel Core Duo processor, which the company claims will consume just about 0.75 watts on average "while still delivering high-performing computing power." Sources told TG daily that this new processor will be named Core Duo U2500, has a clock speed of 1.06 GHz and uses 2 MB L2 cache and a 533 MHz FSB. The chip will be priced at $289 at launch sometime this summer.

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