Intel Core i3 Question

[FireFox]

Doesn't really matter whether it's 2nd, 3rd or the upcoming 4th generation but one thing I was thinking about is the Core i3 die.

I know the Core i5 and i7 are the same die with what ever disabled/removed but I was wondering if anyone knows whether the desktop i3 is a quad core die or is it basically the dual core mobile die?

I always thought the i3 had a quad core die but with two of the cores disabled but someone the other day said it was the dual core die from the mobile line that was clocked up more.

Is this true, I'm curious?

[Duffman]

The current 3rd generation "Ivy Bridge" i3 processor is a dual core, As was the previous 2nd generation. i3 processors lack the turbo boost feature which the i5 and i7 processors have, as well as having 4 cores more cache and are clocked higher than the i3. The i7's has a feature called "hyper threading" which can be described as logical or "virtual cores" that share the CPU load. As for mobile versions of these chips these are just performance reduced slightly for power efficiency.

[FireFox]

The current 3rd generation "Ivy Bridge" i3 processor is a dual core, As was the previous 2nd generation. i3 processors lack the turbo boost feature which the i5 and i7 processors have, as well as having 4 cores more cache and are clocked higher than the i3. The i7's has a feature called "hyper threading" which can be described as logical or "virtual cores" that share the CPU load. As for mobile versions of these chips these are just performance reduced slightly for power efficiency.

I understand the differences (cores, cache and so on) of the CPU's but I'm trying to find out if the Core i3 (2nd or 3rd gen, doesn't really matter) is a dual core die or a quad core with 2 cores disables and what not.

[Duffman]

Like i said the i3 is a dual core, no disabled or hidden extra cores.

[Mentalguy]

The i7's has a feature called "hyper threading" which can be described as logical or "virtual cores" that share the CPU load.

the i3 has that too, 2 cores and 4 threads

[Glenwing]

It's a dual core with 2 cores fused off (you can't enable them). It's based on the quad-core Ivy Bridge design. If you take an i5 and disable 2 cores and adjust the clocks to match an i3, they will perform identically. There are quad-core mobile chips as well so even if it was a "clocked up mobile chip" there's no reason to think it's not based on a quad-core design.