Core Duo stepping and voltage questions

[Antioch]

I'm wondering why Core Duos don't step below 1ghz? I haven't recieved mine yet, but it is my understanding that the lowest they go is 1ghz. That's kind of sad because my T42's Pentum M steps down to 600MHz and is usually idling there - which saves a lot of battery power. Imagine how much better the Duo's battery life would increace if the processor stepped down to 600MHz... Which is why I'm wondering why they dont.

I'm also wondering if the L2300 1.5GHz core duo natively runs at a lower voltage at an equal clock than an L2300 1.66GHz chip does.

What are the performance differences between the two? I know its only 0.16GHz difference, but I'm wondering what that actually amounts to. I haven't found an benchmarks comparing a spectrum of core duos yet.

Thanks

[christopher_wolf]

Well, each chipset has a minimum stable clock setting it can step down to; for the T42, it is 600MHz; for the T43, it is 800MHz. Anything below the minimum rated clock and the processor will begin to get unstable. There is probably a good reason Intel pegged the minimum step at 1GHz; I also assume that they have increased the power efficiency to a point where the difference between 1GHz and 600MHz would cause more harm and work on their part than good to the user.