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• With Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo, you had a general idea of what you were dealing with upfront. Adding a Q8000- or E7000-series designator wasn’t particularly descriptive, but at least there was one tangible identifier in there for the layman to digest. When Intel introduced Core i7 last year, the fact that there was only one Nehalem-based desktop family made it easy to say “Core i7—yeah, high-end stuff,” regardless of whether you were actually talking about the $300 i7-920 or the $1,000 i7-965. Now you have Core i5 and another strain of Core i7; at this point the nomenclature is just jargon for everyone except for the power users who live and breathe this stuff. Let’s break it down in a neat little table, though. Core i7 (LGA 1366)Core i7 (LGA 1156)Core i5Core 2 QuadProcessor InterfaceLGA 1366LGA 1156LGA 1156LGA 775Number of Cores4444Turbo BoostYesYesYesNoHyper-ThreadingYesYesNoNoL1 Cache32KB/32KB per core32KB/32KB per core32KB/32KB per core32KB/32KB per coreL2 Cache256KB per core256KB per core256KB per coreUp to 12MB sharedL3 Cache8MB shared8MB shared8MB sharedNoMemory Channels3222Max. Memory RateDDR3-1066DDR3-1333DDR3-1333DDR3-1600ChipsetX58P55P55X48Price$284-$999$285-$555$199$163-$316 As you can see, Core i7 for LGA 1366 remains the enthusiast-class offering, sporting the most PCI Express 2.0 connectivity via Intel’s X58 Express chipset, up to three available channels of DDR3 memory support, Intel’s first generation of Turbo Boost, and Hyper-Threading. Core i7 for LGA 1156 integrates the PCI Express connectivity (albeit 16 lanes instead of 36), sheds one memory channel, incorporates an updated implementation of Turbo Boost, and maintains Hyper-Threading support. Core i5 includes the same on-board PCI Express subsystem and dual-channel integrated memory controller. It employs Intel’s improved Turbo Boost (though it’s slightly less aggressive than i7’s). What it lacks, however, is Hyper-Threading—apparently a noteworthy-enough capability to turn an i7 into an i5. Of course, descending the stack also results in lower base clock rates. The Making Of A Core i5/i7 Architecturally, most of what you get in a Core i5 or Core i7 processor is borrowed from technology already found in Intel’s LGA 1366-based Core i7 and Xeon 3500-series processors. The Lynnfield die is different from Bloomfield though, estimated at 774 million transistors packed into 296 square millimeters (versus 731 million in 263 millimeters for the first Core i7s). More than 400 million of those transistors make up the CPU's cache. As with Bloomfield, Lynnfield is a monolithic design divided into four cores (execution pipelines, L1 data/instruction cache, TLBs) and the uncore (L3 cache, integrated PCI Express, the memory controller, QPI, and the PLLs). The power for these two “halves” remains separate, independently adjustable in your motherboard's BIOS. Each of the four cores retains its 32KB L1 data cache (still 8-way set-associative), 32KB L1 instruction cache (still 4-way set-associative), and 256KB L2 cache (you guessed it—still 8-way set associative). An inclusive 8MB L3 cache 16-way set-associative) should look familiar as well.  With nothing really new to report in the cores themselves, we move to the uncore, where Intel has added PCI Express 2.0 connectivity, axed a single memory channel, dropping the total to two, and altered QPI.

• AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Review

  There is nothing wrong with an incremental update—especially an update that adds performance without affecting pricing. Such is the case with AMD’s new Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, which arrived at our performance lab running at 3.4 GHz—200 MHz faster than its predecessor, the Phenom II X4 955 BE. Everything else is exactly the same as the Phenom II X4 955, reviewed back in April 2009. So, if the latest Phenom II is predictably faster than AMD’s former flagship, why is today’s launch so significant? In short, it comes just a few weeks ahead of Intel’s upcoming LGA 1156-based P55 platform debut—an event that’ll almost certainly play a bigger role in the adoption of Nehalem-based machines than either the LGA 1366 Core i7 or Xeon 5500-series CPUs have thus far. After all, LGA 1156 is going to be the interface that purportedly makes Intel’s latest architecture accessible to the mainstream, supplanting the Core 2 family at a number of affordable price points. No doubt, those new Core i5/i7 CPUs will be faster than the Core 2 Quads they replace, and at competitive prices. Just when AMD looked like it had achieved performance parity with the top end of Intel’s Core micro-architecture, LGA 1156-based platforms seem almost certain to set the bar higher. Thus, today’s Phenom II X4 965 BE introduction is actually a fairly important one for AMD. On one hand, it could earn the company its mainstream performance crown—at least for a few weeks. On the other, it could be the last time Phenom II looks as competitive as it does now. Of course, that’s going to depend mightily on how the upcoming Intel chips perform. Up Against Core i5 Of course, we’re not able to publish performance numbers with the pre-production Core i5 processors currently running in the lab, so it’s hard to officially quantify how Phenom II will size up. But we can make best guesses using today’s Core i7s as rough test subjects. You’ll find all of our usual benchmarks on the pages that follow. First, however, we wanted to set up Phenom II X4 965 BE against a hypothetical Core i5-750—a processor expected to cost less than $200 when it launches. We simulated the 2.66 GHz offering with a Core i7-920, which runs at the same clock rate. Of course, we had to pull out a single channel of memory (yielding two channels of DDR3-1333) and disable Hyper-Threading, since Core i5 won’t have that feature. The one variable we couldn’t reproduce was Core i5’s enhanced Turbo Boost, which is expected to accelerate clocks to 3.2 GHz when a single core is active. Core i7-920 only benefits from a single bin of Turbo Boost, yielding 2.8 GHz instead. The only other platform capability setting LGA 1156 apart from LGA 1366 is the use of on-die PCI Express 2.0, which we’ve tested extensively and can say that, in single-card configurations, has almost zero impact on performance versus the X58’s chipset-based connectivity. See more products AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black... Directron $209.99 ElectronicsPLUS $233.19 CDW.com $319.99

• Intel Core i5 And Core i7: Intel’s Mainstream Magnum Opus

  Intel’s emphasis right now is on Clarkdale, the Nehalem-based mainstream lineup centering on a 32nm process shrink. Clarkdale will be the foundation on which upcoming Core i5 and Core i3 CPUs are based. It’s a big deal for Intel. So big, in fact, that I was told jokingly two weeks before the Lynnfield launch that the whole company had been focusing on Clarkdale, not the Core i5 and Core i7 we’re seeing today. Of course, that’s only really funny for the folks who’ve already seen how the Lynnfield-based processors actually perform and know they’re not as anemic as an enthusiast might expect, given the fact that Intel is aggressively pursuing integration, aiming for a SoC-type design in the not-so-distant future. But Clarkdale is six months away, at least. Today is all about Lynnfield—the Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs for Intel’s LGA 1156 interface. The Venerable Core 2 Rides Off…Sort Of With the divulging of its Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3 branding, Intel quietly rang the death knell of its Core 2 family, which has been with us for more than three years now, gently massaging away memories of a day when the company ravenously chased after faster clocks. That transition won’t happen immediately, though—or even quickly for that matter. Well into the fourth quarter of next year, Intel’s Core 2 architecture will remain a value play. Even today it’s going to persist as a viable option for entry-level buyers. Core 2 Quads span from $163 to $316 in the company’s August 9th price list. Core 2 Duos range from $113 to $266. Does the trio of CPUs being launched today wreck a number of those price points? Absolutely. Do the three Lynnfield processors we’re seeing now, from $199 to $555 smother Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo to the point that everyone will spend at least $200 on their next CPU? Obviously not. Wait, Define Mainstream To make a long story a little shorter, Bloomfield sits at the top of Intel’s stack as Core i7 for LGA 1366. Lynnfield now occupies a space between the high-end and the mid-range segments. Yorkfield (Core 2 Quad) becomes this transitional family that tides Intel over until Clarkdale launches in Q1’ 2010. And Wolfdale continues on in the dual-core Pentium family through the course of 2010. If you would have considered a Core 2 Quad or Phenom II X4 previously, the lone Core i5 will be of interest to you. If you were previously pondering a Core i7 for LGA 1366, the Core i7-860 and -870 are now vying for your attention with price points disturbingly similar to the i7-920 and -950, respectively. How’re you supposed to choose between CPUs when architecture, functionality, and pricing are all so similar? Intro to Core i5/i7 Good question—this is one of the areas where we’re going to be particularly critical of Intel today. The naming is a mess if you’re not already familiar with the technology. Fortunately, Intel puts function ahead of marketing, so there’s a lot more exciting innovation to cover than confusing branding. Let’s just get that out of the way, first. See more products Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition... Newegg.com $999.99 PC Connection $1195.70 NextWarehouse $1006.91 CostCentral.com $1041.17 Compuvest $1072.22