With NDA's set to expire soon, the web will be awash in Core 2 benchmarks. There are already a plethora of pre-release articles, a result from Intel engineering samples being tested. We've already seen one Core 2 launch with the Woodcrest/Xeon as well. It's almost unprecedented for Intel to be so free prior to the release of a product. Good press is something Intel needs and needs badly.

For the first time in a while, Intel has all of its proverbial eggs in one basket with a unified architecture across all market segments. This is a significant about-face for Intel, and a lot is at stake here. Even more than the obviously excellent benchmarks of Core 2 indicate at first glance. Intel is obviously a large enough company to overcome adversity, even if most of it they've faced in recent history has been self inflicted. Rather than focus on the numbers, let's take a look at the actual rollout itself, and see what concerns there may be.