Intel Rechristens Processors Core 2 Duo

Intel has rechristened its upcoming Merom and Conroe processors Core 2 Duo, and will market a Core 2 Extreme for gamers.

Chipmaker Intel today announced the official names for its upcoming Conroe and Merom processors: from this point forward, they’ll officially be known as Core 2 Duo processors, reflecting the chip’s new Core architecture and that each chip will sport two processing cores (or “brains”). A high-end version aimed at PC enthusiasts and gamers will be dubbed the Core 2 Extreme.

Intel says the “2″ in Core 2 Duo indicates the generation of technology in the processor product, and the company will continue to use “such terms as “Duo to creatively and effectively indicate the number of processing cores” in each product. Since Intel has committed to refreshing its microprocessor architecture every two years, expect the next iterations to be dubbed the Core 3 Duo…and perhaps Core 3 Quad, since Intel it apparently designing its forthcoming “Tukwila” chip as a quad-core unit.

As far as part numbers, Intel plans to use numbers in the 4000 to 6000 ranges to indicate Conroe processors, while numbers in the 5000 and 7000 ranges will indicate Merom units. Like the current Core Duo processors, these numbers will be prefixed with a number which indicates their power consumption. Currently, a U indicates power usage below 14 Watts, an L indicates usage between 15 and 24 Watts, and a T indicates usage between 25 and 49 Watts. Some Core 2 Duo C processors will apparently sport an E designation, indicating consumption between 55 and 75 watts.