What's Up with Wolfdale?

RikHollis

Junior Member
Aug 5, 2009
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Is the E6300 just Intel marketing? The E5200, E5300, etc are 800 FSB with 2 MB L2 cache, while the E6300 is 1066 FSB but also with 2 MB L2. I BSEL modded my E5300 to run on at 1066 FSB and it chugs right along at 3.45 GHz. So did Intel just do the same BSEL (only internally) to create the E6300?

Seems one difference is the the E6300 supports Virtual Mode whereas the E5xxx series does not, but perhaps that's something Intel just turned off on the E5xxx series?

And if Wolfdale normally (fully?) supports 6 MB L2 (at least on the E7xxx or E8xxx series, couldn't Intl have upped the E6300 to say, 4 MB L2 to further differentiate those from the E5xxx series?

Anyone know what the real deal is with the whole Wolfdale line?
 

cusideabelincoln

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2008
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The E7xxx series has 3MB of L2 cache, so it wouldn't make sense for them to give the E6300 4MB. They would "have" to charge more for it if they did.

And I think some E5xxx has Virtualization, but don't quote me on that.
 

BolleY2K

Member
Mar 18, 2007
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Intel will re-release the E5xxx and 7xxx Series WITH enabled VT. And of course cause more confusion.... ^^
 

error8

Diamond Member
Nov 28, 2007
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Damn, this is the first time I hear about the "newer" E6300 ( I stood away from the hardware forums for some time). Is Intel running out of names for their cpus and they're using older ones?
 

hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
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Originally posted by: error8
Damn, this is the first time I hear about the "newer" E6300 ( I stood away from the hardware forums for some time). Is Intel running out of names for their cpus and they're using older ones?

well the new one is the pentium e6300.

the old one was the core 2 e6300.


its still pretty stupid of them to use the same name.

they could have just called it the e6310 or something at least.

 

Denithor

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2004
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They can just turn on and off various features (VT support, core speed, fsb speed, etc) at will at some point in the manufacturing process (I would guess when they write the microcode to the chip? or sometime anyway). That's why some chips have 800fsb, others have 1066fsb and still others have 1333fsb or even 1600fsb. And the whole spectrum of clockspeeds.

I'm unsure of how they handle the cache - whether they make each chip with a specific amount or if they make all chips with 6MB and bin them down based on how much is actually functional and what production targets they need to meet. --> If they want e7xxx chips do they make them with physically 3MB cache or do they take chips with 6MB cache (whether fully functional or not) and deactivate half in the microcode?
 

dguy6789

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2002
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Originally posted by: hans007
Originally posted by: error8
Damn, this is the first time I hear about the "newer" E6300 ( I stood away from the hardware forums for some time). Is Intel running out of names for their cpus and they're using older ones?

well the new one is the pentium e6300.

the old one was the core 2 e6300.


its still pretty stupid of them to use the same name.

they could have just called it the e6310 or something at least.

But they already had an e6320!
 

cusideabelincoln

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2008
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Originally posted by: Denithor
They can just turn on and off various features (VT support, core speed, fsb speed, etc) at will at some point in the manufacturing process (I would guess when they write the microcode to the chip? or sometime anyway). That's why some chips have 800fsb, others have 1066fsb and still others have 1333fsb or even 1600fsb. And the whole spectrum of clockspeeds.

I'm unsure of how they handle the cache - whether they make each chip with a specific amount or if they make all chips with 6MB and bin them down based on how much is actually functional and what production targets they need to meet. --> If they want e7xxx chips do they make them with physically 3MB cache or do they take chips with 6MB cache (whether fully functional or not) and deactivate half in the microcode?

I think all those variables are just that, variables, which change depending on the chip.

I'm pretty certain, however, the E7xxx series is in fact a full Wolfdale with 3MB of cache either bad or disabled.

And I came across an older Anandtech article which stated the Allendales (E4xxx series) were indeed made with 2MB of cache instead of having part of the 4MB cache of the Conroe's disabled like the E6300 and E6400, although both the E4xxx and E6xxx series were called Core 2 Duos. Wikipedia also confirms this, but there is no clarification on exactly how the E5xxx lineup is manufactured.
 

IntelUser2000

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2003
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Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln

I think all those variables are just that, variables, which change depending on the chip.

I'm pretty certain, however, the E7xxx series is in fact a full Wolfdale with 3MB of cache either bad or disabled.

And I came across an older Anandtech article which stated the Allendales (E4xxx series) were indeed made with 2MB of cache instead of having part of the 4MB cache of the Conroe's disabled like the E6300 and E6400, although both the E4xxx and E6xxx series were called Core 2 Duos. Wikipedia also confirms this, but there is no clarification on exactly how the E5xxx lineup is manufactured.

The 3MB cache versions are indeed not disabled versions of the 6MB and the 2MB versions aren't the disabled versions of the 4MB. They used to not do that before, but their designs are becoming pretty modular. The die size of the 3MB is 82mm2 compared to 107mm2 on the 6MB.

Is the E6300 just Intel marketing? The E5200, E5300, etc are 800 FSB with 2 MB L2 cache, while the E6300 is 1066 FSB but also with 2 MB L2. I BSEL modded my E5300 to run on at 1066 FSB and it chugs right along at 3.45 GHz. So did Intel just do the same BSEL (only internally) to create the E6300?

Yea they do. Of course I bet they'll go through a little bit of testing since most of these processors sell to the corporate world which care about stability above everything.