Intel Core Duo has 64-bit, but it's not activated

Posted on Wednesday, February 08 2006 @ 2:15 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck

According to rumours Intel's Core Duo processor has some features that aren't being exposed to the consumer, Hexus reports. One of them is Intel's EM64T 64-bit technology:

And it transpires that Sossaman supports iAMD64, er, sorry, 'EM64T', symmetric multi-processing with another Sossaman Xeon, and hardware virtualisation. Intel's implementation of the 64-bit extension to x86, SMP and hardware VT are all missing from the official specs of Intel Core Duo consumer processors, despite Yonah and Sossaman being the same thing.

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Re: Intel Core Duo has 64-bit, but it's not activated
by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 31 2007 @ 4:49 CET

I emailed Intel on this and got the following reply:

Hello Christopher,

Thank you for contacting Intel(R) Technical Support.

I understand that you want to know if by using a software update is possible to
enable the Intel(R) Extended Memory 64 Technology on an Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo
processor.

Currently, we do not have any software capable of doing that, if there is a 3rd
party software capable of doing so, the processor will be running out of
specifications and the warranty will be voided.
Intel(R) does not plan to release software like the one that you are describing.
Since this is a hardware feature, not a software feature, software should not be
able to enable this feature since the feature is not included in the processor.

The only mobile Intel(R) processor supporting Intel(R) Extended Memory 64
Technology is the Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Mobile processor.

For more processor features specifications please visit the following website:
http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/index.htm

Please do not hesitate to contact us again if you need further assistance.

Sincerely,

Adolfo S.
Intel(R) Technical Support

Re: Intel Core Duo has 64-bit, but it's not activated
by Thomas De Maesschalck (lsdsmurf@dvhardware.net) on Wednesday, January 31 2007 @ 17:33 CET

It was a rumour, in some cases rumours later turn out to be bullshit.

And even if this rumour is true and the Core Duo has 64-bit support, Intel's Technical Department may not know about this or isn't allowed to tell you because this isn't an official feature of the processor.

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