Pentium D, Dual Core and Core 2 Duo are some of the processors offered by silicon giant INTEL (although Pentium D is pretty much history). People buy processors and very few know the difference between these processors. This article will focus on explaining the differences between Pentium D, Dual Core and Core 2 Duo lineup of processors offered by INTEL.
Dual core is simply a generic term referring to any processor package with two physical CPUs in one.
The Pentium D is simply two Pentium 4 Prescott processors (Prescott is code name of P-4 with some changes in architecture) inefficiently paired together and ran as dual core. By inefficiently we mean two dies parried together. The Pentium D consumes a relatively high power. It runs at high temperatures and is not a good OverClocker.
The Core Duo is Intel’s first generation dual core processor based upon the Pentium M (a Pentium III-4 hybrid) made mostly for laptops, and is much more efficien than Pentium D. The Dual core makes use of two cores on a single die i.e it has two chips in one package. It solves the problem of overheating of Intel Pentium D without compromising on the performance.
The Core 2 Duo is Intel’s second generation (hence, Core 2) processor made for desktops and laptops designed from the ground up to be fast while not consuming nearly as much power as previous CPUs. The new architecture of Intel core2 duo makes it a lot better processor that runs cool. Most importantly the Intel core2 duo is a super over clocker.
And lastly the change from Pentium name to Core is basically of the new architecture followed by INTEL.
I hope the comparison between Pentium D, Intel core2 duo and Intel dual core has made the decision of choosing a better processor for your computer and laptop comparatively easier and clearing any confusion about what these ‘things’ are.
Let me know if you still have any concerns in the comments and I shall answer them.