Difference between Intel Core Duo and Intel Core 2 Duo

Question

I bought my MBP in November of last year, before the update on the Pros. However, it says about the new Pros that they have Intel Core 2 Duo processors, which are faster than the Intel Core Duos of previous MBPs. I know I bought mine before they updated them, but my "About This Mac" says that mine has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. So, did they update the processors before this latest update, or do have one of the new Macbooks somehow, or what happened? And, is there any difference between my 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, and a 2.4 GHz Intel Core Duo?

Answer 1

Only the original Intel machines came with Core Duo processors. The principal difference is that Core Duos are 32-bit and Core 2 Duos are 64-bit processors. There were also increases in available clock speed, L2 cache, and frontside bus speed. The first models only addressed 2 GBs of RAM. Later models had a different memory controller that enabled 3 GBs of user accessible RAM (4 GBs installed) and even later models such as yours had a memory controller that enabled accessing 4 GBs of RAM (4 GBs installed.)
The first Intel Minis came with a Core Solo processor which had only one core instead of two.