In-spite of downsizing of economies and markets, the semiconductor war for fastest desktop processors is taking its pace between Intel and AMD as Intel declaired the latest Nehalem Processor Family enterent, Core i7, last monday (Nov 17, 2008)
Targeted to the high-end gaming and graphics market, Core i7 is available in two varients, Corei7 (regular) and Corei7 Extreme Edition.
"The Core name is and will be our flagship PC processor brand going forward," said Sean Maloney, Intel Corporation executive vice president and general manager, Sales and Marketing Group. "Expect Intel to focus even more marketing resources around that name and the Core i7 products starting now."
With the base of Nahelam, now Intel is few months ahead of AMD, who is planning the next processor launch early next year. "AMD now just doesn't have a competitive chip against Intel on the desktop," says Patrick Wang, an analyst with brokerage firm Wedbush Morgan.
Technically
Corei7 is powered by the 45nm production technology, YES the same technology used in Intel's server chip Xeon (aka Penryn), the early offering this year. Core i7 processors are also different from their predecessors in that they have "QuickPath," a new microarchitecture that integrates memory controller into each microprocessor. QuickPath will replace Front Side Bus used in Xeon and Itanium platforms. The move increases the bandwidth directly available to the processor, reducing lag time before a CPU can begin executing the next instruction. There is the increased parallelism with the processor being capable of executing 33% more concurrent micro-ops simultaneously.
"Core i7 will be one of the first Intel chips to integrate a memory controller," says Shane Rau, PC analyst at research firm IDC, "though it is something AMD has had for a while."
This hyperthreaded quadra-core wonder will definitely provides the next generation graphics and gaming experience, but also its heavy for the pocket. With the price range of US$ 1006.00 to US$ 1132.12 as per the CNET report.
The quest for fastest processors will never end, but Intel is leading for the now, as AMD Talks Phenom II, planned in early 2009...
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