Intel Core Duo is a family of dual-core mobile processors based on
enhanced mobile (Pentium M) micro-architecture. Core Duo processors
integrate two improved Pentium M cores on the die. While each core has
own 32 KB level 1 instructions and data caches, both cores share the
same 2 MB level cache. Like the Pentium M processors, the Core Duo
CPUs support SSE and SSE2 instructions, and include execute-disable
bit feature. New features in Core Duo microprocessors are SSE3
instruction set and Virtualization technology.
The low-voltage (LV) processors run at lower core voltage, they also operate at lower voltage when running in SpeedStep and other power-saving modes. As a result, Thermal Design Power of the L2300 and faster LV microprocessors is twice smaller then the TDP of standard-voltage CPUs.
All low-voltage Core Duo and Core Solo microprocessors have model numbers starting from "L" rather than "T". The last three digits in the model numbers of these CPUs (these digits signify processor's relative performance) are not comparable with standard-voltage processors. For instance, this L2400 CPU runs at lower frequency and has lower performance than T2400 microprocessors.
Many standard-voltage Core Duo and Solo CPUs are offered in two packages: 478-pin micro FC-PGA and 479-ball micro FC-BGA. All micro FC-BGA microprocessors do not use sockets. These microprocessors are soldered on the motherboards - as such, there is no easy way to replace or upgrade them. Fortunately, many notebooks use socketed micro FC-PGA processors - replacement of these processors is easy, although getting access to the CPU and CPU socket in some notebooks may be cumbersome.