Intel "Nehalem" Performance Is "Touchy"

While visiting Intel in Taiwan to take a look at its Nehalem processor, we noticed a 30-inch Dell LCD display with a PCB frame around the border. On the PCB, there were rows of LEDs on all four sides of the display. At first we thought it was simply an aesthetics thing Intel was going for. However, when one of the Intel engineers placed a finger on the screen and dragged things around, we were surprised.

The device itself we’re told is not made by Intel. However, it worked extremely well and was very accurate. It is not a multi-touch device, so you’re not able to use two fingers to zoom and rotate for example. However, holding on to certain function keys on a keyboard allowed different things to occur with same finger strokes. The device is interesting as a prototype because users can buy different size "touch frames" for their LCD panels and get touch-screen functionality.

Intel was using the device to show off the power of Nehalem however, and not the actual touch features. During the demo, we were able to scroll, zoom into and out of hundreds of photos and maps in real time without a hiccup.

While we weren’t shown any benchmarks with solid numbers at this early stage, the overall impression we had was extremely good.