The biggest news of 2006 has been Intel's comeback in the desktop PC performance arena, where its Core 2 Duo and Extreme processors have smoked AMD's Athlon 64 X2 and FX in virtually every benchmark. Now Intel has turned its gunsights on the mobile market, where the company already enjoys considerable success with the Core Duo introduced in January 2006.

AMD has tried to counter that CPU with its Turion 64 X2, but the latter has had a hard time keeping up with the Core Duo, so there was little impetus for Intel to act. Due to this, Core 2 Duo mobile processors lagged well behind their desktop cousins. But this week, Intel finally pulled the trigger.

Almost a Conroe

The mobile Core 2 Duo, codenamed "Merom," is virtually a match for the "Conroe" desktop processor in terms of basic architecture. That means a dual-core CPU with 32K instruction plus 32K data Level 1 cache, 2MB or 4MB of dynamically shared, 256-bit-bus Advanced Smart [Level 2] Cache, Smart Memory Access, and Advanced Media Boost, as well as power-saving features like enhanced SpeedStep Technology. Each has a thermal design power of 34 watts.

Like their desktop counterparts, the Core 2 Duo portable processors are divided into two groups, equipped with 2MB or 4MB of L2 cache. The T7000 series, with 4MB, include the Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.0GHz), T7400 (2.16GHz), and T7600 (2.33GHz). The T5000 series, with 2MB of L2 cache, contains the Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz) and T5600 (1.83GHz).

Intel has also waved goodbye to the superfluous Core Solo design, and gone purely dual-core for the mobile Core 2 Duo release. Strangely enough, the duplicate naming conventions extend beyond the processor and into the platform: The Centrino Duo brand will now be used for both Core 2 Duo and Core Duo notebooks that combine their Intel CPUs with Intel chipsets and wireless adapters.

Like the desktop Core 2 Duo, the Merom offers an exceptional combination of performance and features. As a mobile part, however, it sacrifices some specifications for the sake of market positioning. For instance, to ramp up sales quickly, Intel designed the processor to be drop-in compatible with existing Core Duo platforms.