MacBook Pro: 2 2ghz cores, or 2 1ghz cores?

[screensaver400]

I've been curious about this. Does the Intel Core Duo chip have two 1ghz cores, or two 2ghz cores in a "2GHz chip"? The reason I ask is that, all other things equal, two 1ghz cores would be slower than one 2ghz core. I am curious as to how Intel was marketing their chips.

 

[iGary]

You answered your own question. Each core runs at 2.0GHz.

 

[Laser47]

2 1ghz processors do not equal a 2 ghz chip, if so then the quad would be 10 ghz!

 

[DMPDX]

2 1ghz processors do not equal a 2 ghz chip, if so then the quad would be 10 ghz!

That's basically what it is though. 4 cores running at 2.5GHz each. There has been LOTS of discussiona bout the quad and there are realistic and technical answers, but let's not hijack or go off topic on this thread. k?
-dsm

 

[Mord]

you cant split a thread over cores, a single 10GHz cpu is always faster than a quad 2.5GHz core design when using the same architecture and fsb.

 

[Fredou51]

That's pretty cool. I didn't know that. So a quad has four core running at 2.5 Ghz each and a Intel Core Duo 2 Ghz has two core running at 2 Ghz each? So how come Apple doesn't call their computer "Dual Core 4 Ghz" or something? I think it would be better marketing.

 

[screensaver400]

It would be better marketing, but would also be somewhat untrue.

As has been said before, a 10ghz single G5 would be faster than a Quad 2.5ghz.

 

[Fredou51]

Moreover would the Mac Mini Core Solo has one core at 1.5Ghz and the Core Duo has two a 1.67Ghz? That's a huge difference!!

 

[gnasher729]

That's pretty cool. I didn't know that. So a quad has four core running at 2.5 Ghz each and a Intel Core Duo 2 Ghz has two core running at 2 Ghz each? So how come Apple doesn't call their computer "Dual Core 4 Ghz" or something? I think it would be better marketing.

It wouldn't be better marketing at all, because everyone would think that they are either stupid or lying.

2 GHz is a frequency. Whether you have 1 core, or 2, or 200, the frequency is the same. Ask yourself: If one cup of tea has a temperature of 80 degrees Celsius, what is the temperature of two cups of tea? Do you think it is 160 degrees? No, it is still 80 degrees. If your car can go 120 miles per hour, could you go 240 miles per hour if you had two cars? No, you can't. Same thing with processor clock speed: It stays the same.

Now you could ask how many operations per second a computer can perform. A single core in the Core Duo chip can perform up to three operations per clock, that is up to 6 billion per second at 2 GHz, and the whole chip can do twice that, that is up to 12 billion per second. So the Core Duo can do more work per second than a single processor per chip, but clock frequency is the same.