Westlake Village (CA) - Intel's next-generation processor micro-architecture, which apparently will be named simply "NGMA," will be posting about 20% more performance per clock cycle than AMD Socket 939 Athlon processors, according to a Cnet report. Industry sources confirmed this claim to TG Daily, but mentioned that opportunities for comparison between AMD and Intel chips are limited, as Conroe processors are only available as 1.8 GHz engineering samples at this time.

The desktop processor will introduce a new monitoring solution as well. Instead of using Presler's thermal diode to report CPU thermals, Conroe will take advantage of what is called "Platform Environment Control Interface (PECI)." PECI is a one-wire bus interface with a bandwidth ranging from 2 kbps to 2 Mbps that uses a CRC check Byte to ensure accurate data reporting. The technology will be able to deliver data about electronic requirements, platform topologies, power management state handling, bus devices, commands and addressing for Intel based systems.

As reported previously, Conroe will be introduced in the third quarter of this year with clock speeds of up to 2.66 GHz in a 65 watt power envelope. Media reports, including an article at X-bit Labs, claim that there will be a 2.93 GHz Conroe in Q4 as well as a 3.33 GHz Extreme Edition sporting a 1333 MHz FSB. Intel's current non-public roadmap does not list the 2.93 and 3.33 GHz versions and does not indicate that there will be a 1333 MHz FSB. However, Woodcrest, a sister chip targeted at server is scheduled to be launched with up to 3.0 GHz and FSB1333.

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