A CPU chip that contains two distinct processing units that work in parallel. IBM introduced dual core Power 4 CPUs in 2000, followed by Sun and HP in 2004 and x86-based Pentiums in 2005.

Processors with similar names could be anything from brand new to 15-plus years old. For example, Core i5 processors from 2008 have the ... Up until recently, there were separate brands for Celeron ...