Intel has just confirmed the introduction of a new revision (stepping L2) of the Core 2 Duo E6300 and E6400. This revision only concerns these two processors since they are only using 2 MB of the 4MB of L2 cache. From now on, this new L2 revision will only natively have 2MB of cache L2 and will make it possible to cut production costs.
These new processors will have new packaging and different CPUID, 6F2 instead of 6F6 for the B2 stepping. Intel also said that the Core 2 Duo E6300 and E6400 but also the E6600 and E6700 (which have 4 MB of L2 cache but aren’t going through stepping or packaging modifications) will have a new version of the Extended HALT that will be able to reduce the power consumption to 12 Watts instead of 20-22 watts previously. It will of course happen when it will be possible to reduce the power consumption to the bare minimum. Here are the new S-Spec of these CPU:
E6700 : SL9S7 -> SL9ZF
E6600 : SL9S8 -> SL9ZL
E6400 : SL9S9 -> SL9T9
E6300 : SL9SA -> SL9TA
It is important to point our that Xeon processors equivalent to the Core 2 Duo, the 3040, 3050, 3060 and 3070 (for E6300, 6400, 6600 and 6700) will also beneficiate from the same improvements. These processors will be available from the second half of December.
