Intel Initiates Commercial Shipments of Dual-Core 65nm Processors

by Anton Shilov
10/18/2005 | 11:22 PM

Intel Corp. said during a conference dedicated to the company’s financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal year that it had initiated volume shipments of its dual-core processors code-named Presler. The processors are designed for desktops and are made using 65nm process technology. The announcement not only proves that Intel’s new chip is ready for commercial launch, but also that the firm’s 65nm manufacturing capacities are ready for volume manufacturing.

“Intel has initiated commercial production and revenue shipments of dual-core microprocessors based on the company’s industry-leading 65nm, 300mm process technology, which enables cost-effective, high-volume manufacturing of multicore microprocessors and other advanced products,” the company said in a statement.

Intel expects to ship “hundreds of thousands” of processors built on 65nm technology by the end of the year and is broadly sampling dual-core processors code-named Yonah, Presler and Dempsey to its OEM customers in preparation for a high-volume ramp in 2006.

The Presler products, which are claimed to be branded as Intel Pentium D 900-series, are expected to be clocked at 2.80GHz, 3.00GHz, 3.20GHz and 3.40GHz and use 800MHz processor system bus. The chip will have 4MB of cache in total, or 2MB per core. Intel is also projected to launch “extreme” version of the Presler for enthusiasts. The processor which is claimed to be branded Intel Pentium Extreme Edition processor 955 will operate at 3.46GHz, sport 1066MHz processor system bus, feature Intel virtualization technology and will only operate with mainboards based on Intel 975X. Each of the processor’s cores will sport Intel Hyper-Threading technology and 2MB of level-two cache (which will result in 4MB of L2 cache per central processing unit in total). All the processors are expected to support such technologies as EM64T, EDB, EIST and iAMT2.

Presler design features two independent processing engines located on a single piece of substrate. Current Smithfield design employs two processing engines located within a single piece of silicon. CedarMill is single-core flavour of the Presler.

Intel officials did not confirm the specs of Presler.