Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Intel's 8-core CPU's...

Thats right Intel will be rolling out its news 8-core processors called Nehalem processors very soon. These processors will be available with up to eight cores and multi-threading technology to enable them to run up to 16 threads in parallel. This week at ISSCC 2009, Intel will be providing more detailed information about the Nehalem processor lineup. According to the conference program, 45 nm Nehalem processors are on the way for mobile, desktop and server applications.
Besides the fact that these processors will have up to eight cores, it is interesting to note that despite the core count Intel will be able to maintain the power envelope of its current Core 2 processors. Intel will discuss in more detail a 45 nm 8-core “Enterprise” Xeon processor, which carries 2.3 billion transistors during the ISSCC meet. The company said that it uses core cache shut-off techniques to minimize leakage, but a power consumption of 130 watts in such a scenario is certainly impressive nevertheless.

32 nm shrinks of Nehalem processors are expected to debut in Q4 of this year. It may be interesting to note that 2.3 billion transistor 8-core CPUs have 80,000 times more transistors than the Intel's original 16-bit 8086 CPU first released on 10,000 nm processes just 31 years ago, and one million times more transistors than Intel's original 4-bit 4004 CPU in 1971.

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