In 2008, semiconductor companies Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) released the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 and the AMD Athlon X2 6000+ (part number ADV6000IAA5DO), respectively. Both processors, or central processing units, are made for application on desktop personal computers. The E8400 is one of the entries of Intel's then-premier Core 2 brand, while the AMD 6000 is part of its manufacturer's mid-range Athlon series. For the most part, the Intel chip is a more advanced choice than the AMD chip.
Manufacture
Each Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 and AMD Athlon X2 6000+ is a dual-core chip. This means that it has two cores, or processing units. The AMD processor uses the X2 suffix for this reason. The AMD chip is bigger than the Intel chip. This is because it uses the 65 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process; the Intel CPU uses the 45 nm lithographic node.
Speeds
Each Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 and AMD Athlon X2 6000+ has a clock (or processing) speed, which is the rate at which the CPU operates; and data transfer speed, which is the rate at which the processor connects with the motherboard. The 6000+ surpasses the E8400 with a core speed of 3.1GHz; the Intel chip has a processing rate of 3GHz. The Intel CPU, however, has a faster data transfer speed, at 1.33GHz; the AMD chip has a rate of 1GHz.
Caches
Each Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 and AMD Athlon X2 6000+ has a Level 1 cache and a Level 2 cache for high-speed access to the desktop PC's most frequently used data. The Athlon chip has an L2 cache of 512KB. The Core 2 chip, however, has a much bigger L2 cache -- at 6MB.
Power Consumption and Operational Voltage
The Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 can consume up to 65 watts of power. This makes the Intel chip more energy-efficient than the AMD Athlon X2 6000+, which has a peak power consumption rate of 89W. The operational voltage range is 0.85 to 1.3625 volts for the E8400 and 1.1 to 1.4V for the Athlon X2 6000.
Tags: Athlon 6000, Core E8400, Intel Core, Intel Core E8400, E8400 Athlon