Core 2 Duo Mobile line of microprocessor was introduced shortly after
the Core 2 Duo desktop processors. Based on the Core
micro-architecture, these mobile microprocessors have many features
that are present in their desktop counterparts - dual CPU cores with
shared 2 MB or 4 MB level 2 cache, 32 KB instruction and 32 KB data
level 1 caches per core, ability to execute up to 4 instructions per
cycle, support for SSE3 and supplemental SSE3 instructions, and so
on. The mobile Core 2 Duo CPUs have lower Front-Side Bus frequency,
lower core voltage and lower power consumption than desktop
processors. The mobile Core 2 Duo CPUs not only include all low-power
modes of desktop processors, they also have additional modes and
features:
- Deeper Sleep mode offers better power savings than Deep Sleep mode
by further reducing core voltage. From this mode the CPU can
transition to enhanced Deeper Sleep mode. In enhanced mode mode the
contents of L2 cache is flushed to main memory, the cache is turned
off and the core voltage is reduced further, which results in even
lower power consumption.
- Dynamic FSB frequency switching: this feature allows the CPU to
reduce its FSB in half thus reducing CPU frequency in half. Combining
this feature with SpeedStep technology greatly reduces power
consumption.
Some mobile core 2 Duo processors include Dynamic Acceleration
technology. This technology is used to temporary increase maximum
frequency of one processor core while the other core is inactive.
Performance increase in this mode is not very big - essentially in
this mode the clock multiplier is increased by 1.
Mobile Core 2 Duo processors have different model numbers depending
on their power consumption and performance:
- T7xxx - high-performance mobile microprocessors.
- T5xxx - low-cost mobile processors
- L7xxx - low-power CPUs
- U7xxx - ultra low-power CPUs.
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