The Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 is one of the collection of mid-range and high-end processors, or central processing units (CPU), of the Core 2 brand, which was launched in 2006. The E8500 fell under the Core 2 Duo subdivision, with the Duo suffix representing its status as a dual-core processor. Intel introduced the E8500 in 2008 as one of the E8000-series of desktop PC chips
Manner of Manufacture
The designation of the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 processor as a dual-core processor means that it has two processing units. The two cores are placed in a single die, which measures 107 square mm and contains 410 million processing transistors. Moreover, Intel Corporation uses the 45 nanometer (nm) lithographic node of semiconductor fabrication for the chip, and it has a 64-bit instruction set, which refers to the data size it accommodates.
Speeds
Every CPU has a clock speed and front-side bus speed. Also known as the clock rate or processing speed, the former refers to how fast a computer chip can perform its basic tasks. The latter stands for the rate at which it connects to the computer's motherboard for data transfer via the system's front-side bus interface.
The Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 has a clock speed of 3.16 gigahertz and a front-bus speed of 1,333 megahertz. This made it one of the faster chips of the E8000-series, although all the CPUs of this series shared the same front-side bus speed.
L2 Cache
The L2 cache -- or Level 2 cache -- refers to a secondary memory bank on the CPU that it relies on for access to the computer's most frequently used data when it fails to obtain it from the L1 (Level 1) cache. These memory banks are designed to provide the chip with speedier access to data than the computer's system memory. The E8500 has an L2 cache of 6 megabytes, which is the standard amount of the E8000-series.
Power
Each semiconductor manufacturer sets a thermal design point/power, or TDP, for each CPU it makes. This stands for the maximum amount of heat it dissipates, or the amount of power it consumes. The E8500, like the other members of the Core 2 Duo family, has a TDP rating of 65 watts.
Tags: Core E8500, Intel Core, Intel Core E8500, clock speed, dual-core processor