Intel unveiled its iconic Core 2 Duo family 20 years ago — legendary chip dethroned AMD Athlon, restoring the chipmaker’s performance lead

Intel is marking 20 years since Core 2 Duo, launched as Conroe on July 27, 2006.

The chips delivered big gains in IPC, cache design, and power efficiency over Intel’s older CPUs and AMD’s Athlon 64 line.

Core 2 Duo helped Intel regain the desktop performance lead and reset expectations for mainstream CPUs.

Its success paved the way for later multicore chips such as Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme.