Intel® Multi-core Technology
Intel multi-core architecture has a single Intel® processor package that contains two or more processor "execution cores," or computational engines. Multi-core processors allow you to complete today's computing tasks more efficiently and will enable entirely new computing experiences, and the benefits apply to server and client platforms, as well as the home and enterprise environments. Multi-core capability can enhance user experiences in multitasking environments, namely, where a number of foreground applications run concurrently with a number of background applications such as virus protection and security, wireless, management, compression, encryption and synchronization.

In the home, you can be downloading a music file while editing your digital photos and your virus protection software can continue running seamlessly in the background. In the office, you can run that productivity application while the IT department's management software and virus protection software continue running seamlessly in the background. In addition to these scenarios, multi-core computing enhances multitasking where separate processor cores are assigned to the different functions the user wants to run concurrently, as well as multiprocessing where multiple cores are working on portions of the same function.