Most modern (post-2000) CPUs used shared multi-level caches. The level of sharing a specific cache can vary by the design of the processor.
For example, many CPUs will share Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 caches between all cores. In others (particularly those with many cores), Level 1 and possibly Level 2 caches may be shared only between a certain subset of cores. For example, in certain 16-core CPUs, the design breaks it into 8 sets of 2 cores - each pair shares a L1 cache (8 L1 caches total), with 2 pairs sharing a L2 cache (4 L2 caches total), and all cores sharing a single L3 cache.
L3 Cache
L3 cache
L3 cache
Duo Core consists of two cores on one die, a 2 MB L2 cache shared by both cores, and an arbiter bus that controls both L2 cache and the front-side bus access. Quad core is a processor with four cores on one die.
For Intel chips this will be almost any Core I5 and I7(with the ones ending with 3 numbers and X being Hexacores, the rest are just Quad cores), for AMD that would be the Chips with "X3 (3 physical cores)/X4(4 cores)/X6(6 cores) in the name.
processor is the brain of computer, before you purchase, considered the price, the speed, cores, cache and features, if you want low price processor but good for gaming and speed, good choice are amd.
The current iMac models (aluminum and glass, introduced mid-2007) have either a 2.0GHz or 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (for 20" and 24" models), or a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme processor (for high-end 24" model). As of February 2010 the iMac range utilises the following processors: ◦ 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB shared L2 cache ◦ 3.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 6MB shared L2 cache ◦ 2.66GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache; Turbo Boost dynamic performance up to 3.2GHz ◦ 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache; Turbo Boost dynamic performance up to 3.46GHz; Hyper-Threading for up to eight virtual cores
This "3MB" is probably proceeded by "L2 cache" or "L3 cache" Or, its 3GHz. If it is 3MB, then it is referring to the instruction-caching memory that is built right into the processor, a few small panels of extremely fast memory that temporarily store instructions for the processor. The including of cache greatly increased a processors overall performance. The L2 and L3 portion refer to levels of cache. L1 Cache is very small, typically two blocks of 32KB or 64Kb. This Cache is the fastest, used for branch prediction and direct instruction strings. L2 Cache is larger, typically 1MB or 2MB, and also a fair deal slower than L1 cache. L3 Cache is the slowest, and is shared by multiple cores (If there is more than 1) and is the largest cache, typically 3MB - 16MB, depending on the processor. If it is actually 3GHz, then this is the number that reflects the number of Cycles Per Second, or Hertz, that the processor is capable of. 3Ghz is Three Giga-Hertz, or 3,000,000,000 Cycles per Second. Amazing isn't it?
is the processor with dual cores.
The highest number of cores in a single processor chip for consumers (high end servers) is the AMD Opteron 6000 series, with 16 cores per processor, and quad processor motherboards allowing for a total number of 64 x86 cores.
6 cores
The specs of a T6600 processor would be 2 cores with 2M cache, 2.2 GHZ, and 800 MHz FSB. One can purchase a computer with these specs at a store like Best Buy or Amazon.