[dlk289]

i'm looking to buy a new system in august for school, and i keep hearing people saying they are waiting for the true quads, but what does that mean? Also, which quad core comming out soon will be a 'true quad'?

[EmAn]

as far as i know all the quad core intel cpu's are quad cores but i think they mean

"true" by not having cache for each core instead of having shared cache

[dlk289]

what would be an example of an up coming true quad? 4 x 4MB cache ??

[Airbornederekc]

4 cores 1 bank of cache

intel seems to be stickign with the 2 cores 1 bank 4 cores 2 banks or cache

amd is atleast connecting those 2 banks with a l3 cache on their quad

[Evilsizer]

the current quads have 2 die's, each with 4mb's l2. once x38 is release intel is said to let loose the 45nm quad with will start with 6mb up to 12mb L2. this is a single die quad so will be first true quad in that sense. you could consider the current quad true quads in the sense that its on one cpu package.

[MadMan007]

'True quad' refers to the quad CPU being made from one large die rather than two separate dies connected together the way Intel makes quads atm. Intel connects the two dual-cores via the FSB and it will be this way for Penryn (45nm tweaked C2Ds) too, AMDs Barcelona-based quads are single-die and I believe the cores are interconnected by Hypertransport bridges.

Quite frankly 'true quad' isn't important in a meaningful way in itself, it's a techno-marketing checkbox. The proof is in the performance, not in the nit-picking of architectural details. If it gets done it gets done, how it gets done isn't nearly as important

[hUMANbEATbOX]

^^ well said.