And they didn't even have an i3 model. What you refer to as the i3 above was still branded as "Celeron". The immediate successor (Westmere) didn't follow this convention at all:
Looked up the history and got there the same time as you.
Hindsight is 20/20, so I see how Intel ~2008 could have thought "Maybe SMT will fail in real world scenarios, so we don't want it on our entire product line."
But at some point relatively soon after that it was clear that SMT worked well and they could cram it into every chip.
That's when they really should have ditched the i* and converted to a new system.
Hindsight is 20/20, so I see how Intel ~2008 could have thought "Maybe SMT will fail in real world scenarios, so we don't want it on our entire product line."
But at some point relatively soon after that it was clear that SMT worked well and they could cram it into every chip.
That's when they really should have ditched the i* and converted to a new system.