After moving all 45nm Xeon DP quad core processors from the C-O to the E-0 stepping, Intel announced today that three more 45nm processors will also be upgraded to E-0. The two desktop Core 2 Duo E8400 and E8500 plus the server Xeon E3110 CPUs will all be updated to the E-0 stepping next month. Changes that will come with the E-0 stepping include:

- CPUID will change from 0x10676 to 0x1067A
- Power Status Indicator (PSI) is supported
- PECI implementation change
- New instructions added - XSAVE/XRSTOR
- New ISA extension for save/restoring context of x87, SSE, and future processor state
- New feature added - ACNT2
- Improved mechanism for determining processor utilization. To be used for more efficient P-state determination.
- Package change to Halide free package

The E-0 processors will not require any BIOS updates. They'll be easily recognisable by the new sSpec numbers: SLB9J for E8400, SLB9K for E8500 and SLB9C for E3110.