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Quad-core "Kentsfield" Intel chips by year's end

Swad

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Just when you thought that life couldn't get much better than two dual-core Xeons packaged together in a Mac Pro, Intel releases more details on their upcoming quad-core processor, code named "Kentsfield." Anandtech reports:

Intel's newest roadmap started making the rounds last week, and the headline title across the roadmap was absolutely Kentsfield, Intel's upcoming quad-core processor. During last month's investor call, Intel CEO Paul Otellini announced the chips would be shipping this year, as opposed to Q1'07 that was originally slated on the roadmap.

 

Now a few additional details of Kentsfield have slipped out. Intel's most recent roadmap claims Kentsfield, which will ship as a Core 2 Extreme branded processor, will run each core at 2.66GHz and a 1066MHz front-side bus. Essentially, the processor is two Core 2 Duo E6700 processors packaged onto a single CPU.

 

There is no announced ship date of Kentsfield yet, though Intel has announced that the processor will ship for $999 -- the same as every other "Extreme" processor the company has announced. Intel has no price cuts for the E6700 processor planned until after the quad-core Kentsfield launch as well. Since the E6700 has a distributor price of $530, the Kentsfield actually offers some discount for the second core.

It seems that Intel has vastly increased the speed of its processor production schedule, now releasing major upgrades only months apart. 2006 will have seen the jump from a single core processor in January to a quad-core processor in December. This (so far) equates to faster Mac updates as well.

 

The frequency of the upgrades, however, leaves consumers in a quandary. Should I buy a Mac Pro now or wait 3-4 months when I can get 2x the core power for the same price (for an excellent treatise on the benefits of a multi-core Mac Pro, you absolutely must read Anandtech's MP review, parts 1 and 2)? Will the resale value of a Macintosh, traditionally higher than its Wintel counterpart, diminish as a result of these developments? Are you concerned that your cutting edge computer will be made obsolete in a matter of weeks rather than months?

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ampTK

Kentfield won't be used on the Mac Pro, it's the same deal of Core 2 Duo, it doesn't support multiple processor configurations. They will likely upgrade the MP to Clovertown, the Four core version of woodcrest

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yoink

I think it's also important to remember that the quad-core x86 intel cpus will be most likely be positioned at a much higher price point than the current top-of-the-line dual core cpus. So while I hope they will be available in an up and coming Apple product(s), we can expect to pay a serious penalty (cost-wise) for these items over current offering even with the minimum 5-month price drop as the dual-core cpus flood the channel. The 51x0 Xeons are too new to begin with.

 

That being said it would be really wonderful if the current machines were upgradable as-is. You know out with the old in the with new and all that.

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