Peaking clock
Chip giant Intel refreshed its processor price-list yesterday and there were just a couple of additions.
Of the two, the launch of the Core i5 680 is easily the most significant. Anticipated a month ago, it's a 32nm Clarkdale part with two cores, four threads and 4 MB L3 cache. It also clocks at 3.60 GHz, which should make it Intel's fasted dual-core processor yet.
Price-wise, at $294 (within a batch of a thousand) it costs ten dollars more than the CPU it replaces at the top of the Core i5 pile - the 3.46 GHz 670. Just to remind you, there is a higher numbered Core i5 - the 750 - but this is an anomalous 45nm, 4-core, 4-thread 2.66 GHz part costing $196.
The only other addition was a new Pentium - the E5500. It costs $75 and has a similar spec to the $74 E6500. However, the 5500 clocks slower - 2.8 vs 2.93 GHz - and has lower FSB - 800 vs 1066 MHz - so it's not clear what the positioning is. It's a desktop part, so even energy-saving is a minor factor.
There's no sign of the predicted Core i7 870s yet.
