Core 2 Extreme quad-core
Processors are no longer measured in megahertz and gigahertz. They still do but not many people will pay much attention to that anymore. Instead, attention is now shifted to the number of cores that CPU has. Intel released the 45nm Penryn processor last month that has four cores built in it but before all those happened, there was also the Intel Core 2 Extream QX6850.
Before the release of the 45nm Penryn processors, the QX6850 is the highest end desktop quad core processor from intel range and being Extream processor, it has a higher clock speed than the standard procesors you probaly have at hone. This model also features unlocked clock multiplier to satiate your overclocking needs.
The QX6850 is a LGA775 socket compatible processor and motherboard choices which run on this socket are various and many.
How intel manages to fit in four cores in a 1.5×1.5 inch chip still fascinating. Based on a not-so-native design, it is basically two Core 2 Duo chips linked together with a bridge in the QX6850. The processor has a clock speed of 3GHz running with dual 4MB L2 caches whereas the Front Side Buss (FSB) has also been bumped up to 1333MHz compared to 1066MHz as used in its predecessors. The processor runs on an Intel 3 series motherboard, such as with the P35 and X38 chipset motherboards.
