The Core brand refers to Intel's 32-bit mobile dual-core x86 CPUs that derived from the Pentium M branded processors. The processor family used a more advanced version of the Intel P6 microarchitecture. It emerged in parallel with the NetBurst (Intel P68) microarchitecture of the Pentium 4 brand, and was a precursor of the 64-bit Core microarchitecture of Core 2 branded CPUs. The Core brand comprised two branches: the Duo (dual-core) and Solo (Duo with one disabled core, which replaced the Pentium M brand of single-core mobile processor).

The Core brand was launched on January 5 2006 by the release of the 32-bit Yonah CPU - Intel's first dual-core mobile (low-power) processor. Its dual-core layout closely resembled two interconnected Pentium M branded CPUs packaged as a single die (piece) silicon chip (IC). Hence, the 32-bit microarchitecture of Core branded CPUs - contrary to its name - had more in common with Pentium M branded CPUs than with the subsequent 64-bit Core microarchitecture of Core 2 branded CPUs. Despite a major rebranding effort by Intel starting January 2006, some computers with the Yonah core continued to be marked as Pentium M.

The Core Duo is also known for being the first Intel processor to ever be used in Apple Macintosh computers. Core Duo signified the beginning of Apple's shift to Intel processors across their entire line.

In 2007, Intel began branding the Yonah core CPUs intended for mainstream mobile computers as Pentium Dual-Core. These are not to be confused with the desktop 64-bit Core microarchitecture CPUs also branded as Pentium Dual-Core.

September 2006 and January 4, 2008 mark a discontinuation of many Core branded CPUs.

Yonah

Yonah was the code name for (the core of) Intel's first generation of 65 nm process mobile microprocessors, based on the Banias/Dothan-core Pentium M microarchitecture. SIMD performance has been improved through the addition of SSE3 instructions and improvements to SSE and SSE2 implementations, while integer performance decreased slightly due to higher latency cache. Additionally, Yonah includes support for the NX bit.

The Intel Core Duo brand refers to the world's first low-power (less than 25 watts) Yonah dual-core microprocessor, with the previous low being AMD's Opteron 260 and 860 HE at 55 watts. Core Duo was released on 5 January 2006, with the other components of the Napa platform. It was the first Intel processor to be used in Apple Macintosh products (although the Apple Developer Transition Kit machines, non-production units distributed to some developers, used Pentium 4 processors).

Contrary to early reports, the Intel Core Duo supports Intel VT x86 virtualization, except in the T2300E model and proprietary T2050/T2150/T2250 mounted by OEMs (cf. the Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology Performance Brief and Intel's Processor Number Feature Table). The Intel Pentium Dual Core processors may or may not have this feature. However, it seems some vendors, like HP, have chosen to disable this feature, with others making it available through a BIOS option.Fact: date=February 2007