Intel Intros Core i7 Desktop Processors For Heavy Users
By Colleen Bohen -- TWICE, 12/1/2008
SANTA CLARA, CALIF. — Intel has introduced a new desktop processor, the Core i7, the first member of a new family of processor designs codenamed Nehalem that Intel said it is building to "boost performance on demand and maximize data throughput."
As Patrick Gelsinger, senior VP and general manager of Intel's digital enterprise group said in a release, the new chip is designed to meet the increased demands of consumers who use their PCs for video, gaming and music.
According to Intel, the Core i7 processor can speed digital media content creation and manipulation, gaming and other resource-intensive computing activities by up to 40 percent without increasing power consumption.
The processor features Intel's Turbo Boost technology which is said to accelerate a computer's performance to match the user's needs. Intel explained that an "on-die" power control unit and new "power gate" transistors help Turbo Boost to automatically adjust the clock speeds of one or more of the four individual processing cores for single-and multi-threaded applications to ramp up performance while maintaining power-consumption levels.
The Core i7 is said to feature the company's latest power-saving technologies, "allowing desktops to go into sleep states formerly reserved for Intel-based notebooks."
According to Intel, its Quickpath Technology speeds the transfer of data in and out of the processor, allowing the i7 to offer more than double the memory bandwidth of previous Intel "Extreme" platforms. The company's Hyper-Threading technology is said to help the Core i7 quad-core processor deliver "8-threaded performance" by allowing multiple computing threads to run simultaneously.
Intel is offering three versions of the Core i7. The Core i7-965 Extreme Edition has a clock speed of 3.2 GHz, the Core i7-940 has a clock speed of 2.93 GHz and the Core i7-920 has a clock speed of 2.66 GHz.
Desktops featuring the new processors have now become available through a number of manufacturers including Gateway, Dell and Velocity Micro. Intel said similar processors from its Nehalem micro architecture family designed for servers and mobile products will be available in the future.
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