What does core mean in the intel core processors

[Blesseds]

I am hearing a lot about the core word and i am getting to hear lot these days. So what exactly does the word core mean in the processor. Earlier i used to hear about the Intel p1, p2,p3,p4 i thought as the number goes on increasing so is the processor getting advanced. Now i started hearing about the Intel core processor's then dual core processor, now quad processor. So whats exactly the idea behind these core processors. Why have they kept the name core. Is this what we call a marketing gimmick? Please do throw some light on this topic as i have no knowledge about it.

[Alexisus]

If you are not having the knowledge about the core word then core word is used to represent the logical processor. A dual core would mean that the system is having two core's in one system and quad core means having 4 core processors in one system. Now that does not mean that one system will be having 4*500MHz but it will be like 4*2GHz. More the core in the processor the faster will be the system. So hope you have got some knowledge about the core processor's.

[Nutty]

I will give you a fair idea while comparing the Intel quad core processor with the Intel p4 processors. Now if you take the 3.0 GHz quad core processor and if you compare it with the Intel p4 processor then it would be like having a 12GHz Intel p4 processor. Imagine the performance of P4 with 12GHz. What can be the speed. Imagine 12 GHz worth of processor it will be like doing 12,000,000,000 1s and 0s per second. Although the bus speed is 1300MHz, so only 1,333,000 1s and 0s will actually move but there would be a lot of idle time with the processor to do other task. Hope you got the rough idea.

[Blesseds]

Hey thanks for the suggestion. Your efforts has really helped me a lot in understanding the core processor's. I did not had any idea why the people used to core but now i got the fair idea of it and i will be able to better understand the configuration of the computer. Early i had only fair knowledge of the p4 processors but now i can compare them with the speed of the core processor. Thanks for your effort's guys.