X-bit labs

Celeron E1200: Dual-Core Processor Almost for Free (page 3)

Category: CPU

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 01/14/2008 | 05:11 PM ]

Closer Look at Celeron E1200

Since we are very well familiar with the specifications of CPUs on Core micro-architecture, Celeron E1200 specs will seem pretty evident. Smaller L2 cache and reduced clock frequency are the only features distinguishing this new budget dual-core processor from the Core 2 Duo E4000 and Pentium E2000 CPUs.

The formal specifications of the new Celeron E1200 are given in the table below:

Note that Celeron E1200 brought not only multi-core design but also Enhanced SpeedStep Technology into the budget processor segment. Although, it may have actually appeared because of the higher TDP of the new processor: single-core Celeron on Core micro-architecture boasted typical heat dissipation of 35W. The new dual-core Celeron features the same TDP as the other dual-core Intel CPUs.

Moreover, Celeron E1200 is overall more similar to other dual-core Allendale based processors than to older single-core Celeron CPUs. In particular, it is even based on M0 core stepping that is currently used in Core 2 Duo E4000 and Pentium E2000 processors. So, we shouldn’t expect the newcomer to work any wonders, really.

Therefore, it is not surprising at all that the dual-core Celeron looks exactly as the Pentium Dual-core. The only difference is in the marking: the bottom of both processors is identical.

Celeron Dual-core engineering sample: top and bottom
 

And here is what we get from the informational CPU-Z utility about our new processor:

We received a pretty interesting dual-core Celeron processor for our tests. It is a unit with E1600 model number and 2.4GHz clock frequency. However, since Intel’s engineering samples have unlocked clock frequency multiplier, we set it to 8x to get 1.6GHz frequency that corresponds to that of the only currently available Celeron mode – E1200. The thing is that the frequencies of dual-core Celeron processors will rise to 2.4GHz only by the end of the year that is why it doesn’t make much sense to test a processor like that today.