Intel unveil new brand: Core i7
Intel today formally announced that the new line of processor, previously known with the codename “Nehalem”, will be branded as “Core i7.”
The number “7″ has been chosen to honor the fact that this new line constitute the seventh generation of Intel architecture.
A peculiarity of the “Core i7″ will probably be the “real quad-core” nature, a big step considering that the acutall “quad-cores” (the “Penryn” architecture, quad-core Core 2 and Xeon processors) are actually “double-dual-core” units.
Probably the “Core i7″ will reintroduce the HyperThreading technology, a virtual way for parallel computing invented at the end of the “Pentium 4″ era as a filler while Intel was designing the actual “dual-core” technology; with this technology, the “quad-core” can virtually become a “eight-core” system.
Other “Core i7″ peculiarities will be:
- QuickPath, an on-chip memory controller;
- SSE4 instruction support;
- 8 MB cache.
This new line of processors are planned to be rolled out through 2009.


