Launched in early 2008, the Pentium E6500 is a dual-core CPU based on the same architecture as the Intel Core line of processors. Like the equivalent Core processor, the E7500, the Pentium E6500 is a 64-bit processor supporting a wide range of Intel's instruction sets; the only difference is the slightly larger on-board memory in the E7500, which is positioned as an enthusiast's processor.
Physical Design
The E6500 is built on a 45-nm process, meaning that the individual components on the CPU can be as small as 45 nanometers, or more than 2,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. The CPU itself is 82 square millimeters, and contains 228 million transistors. It is designed around the LGA775 socket also used by the Pentium 4, Core 2 and Xeon line of processors; it is not compatible with the LGA 1156 and LGA 1366 sockets designed to support the i3, i5 and i7 lines of Core processors.
Clock Speed and Cache
The CPU is designed around a bus speed of 266 MHz. Intel's chips are designed to transmit data four times on each clock cycle, a technique known as "quad-pumping," which results in a front-side bus speed of 1066 MHz. The E6500 CPU itself operates at a multiplier of 11, yielding a total clock speed of 266 MHz x 11, or 2.93 GHz. It has 2 MB of L2 cache; this memory is located directly next to the CPU and is faster than system memory but available in much smaller quantities. Pentium and Core CPUs are separately primarily by available cache; the E6500 has 1 MB less than the equivalent 2.93 GHz Core 2 CPU.
Voltage and Temperature
Power consumption at maximum CPU usage is measured in "TDP," or thermal design power. For the Pentium E6500, this is 65 watts. The CPU is designed to draw between .85 and 1.3625 volts under different loads. In general, as voltage and power consumption increases temperature does as well. The E6500's maximum safe operating temperature is 74.1 degrees C, or 165.2 degrees F; above this temperature, the computer may overheat and shut down, and if it continues to be used under such conditions the chip may be permanently damaged.
Instruction Sets
The E6500 supports the same instruction sets as other contemporary Pentium and Core chips. For example, it supports Intel's "Virtualization Technology," which allows the CPU to be accessed by many different "virtual machines," emulated computers running on the same physical machine. To reduce power consumption, the Pentium E6500 also supports Intel's SpeedStep technology, which throttles the power consumption and speed of the CPU based on the requirements of the computer at any given time.
Tags: Pentium E6500, Pentium Core, power consumption, designed around, equivalent Core