Computex: Intel's Speedy "Nehalem"
Intel today demonstrated its next-generation Nehalem processor to us behind closed doors. The platform running was running a quad core processor. Intel engineers ran several high definition video demos in Sony Vegas. With the results we saw, there’s no doubt that Nehalem will be a processor to set a new bar in performance.
While we’re unable to reveal the actual clock speed that the sample was running at, Intel engineers pointed out that the system was air cooled, running on "very healthy silicon." One Intel engineered remarked "you won’t believe it. It’s insane." Sources close to Intel engineers indicated that the core frequency of the Nehalem sample is very high, and we can confirm that the system was running at a very impressive clock rate. We’ll go out on a limb here and say that nothing else currently available on the market matches it.
CPU utilization during video editing was well distributed across all 4 cores. The system utilized its thread processing very effectively, and at no point was there any halting or delay. The system was also using a dual SSD drive raid setup, which clearly helped with load times. Intel is pushing SSD drives in a very big way, and although the performance that was demonstrated wasn’t a true test of SSD performance, one could already tell that there is an incredible performance boost. During playback, CPU utilization was very high, very close to always being at 100-percent, which proved that the bottleneck became the CPU when system I/O performance is high.
Many publications indicate that Nehalem will start with 8-cores, but Intel indicated that this is incorrect. Nehalem will launch with 4-cores, with each core able to process 2 threads for a total of 8 simultaneous threads.
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From_Nowhere Sounds like Nehalem will be fast, unfortunately I don't think its price tag will be.Reply -
rockyjohn If the Nahalem is such a large performance booster, Intel better be careful about their marketing buildup or most will stop buying for a few months in anticipation. Then if Intel puts the usual high introductory price on it they may have a lot of angry customers.Reply -
Just_An_Engineer Considering that all of the rumors thus far have been that the mainstream Nehalem processors won't be available until next year, I'd say you can safely assume that the introductory price for the Bloomfield core Nehalems will be $1000+ US.Reply -
i saw a marketing road map of this nehalem processor and it says that the mainstream nehalems will appear at Q2 2009 and the value ones at Q3. though forgot where i saw it.Reply
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virtualrain It appears the mainstream roadmap may have slipped a bit...Reply
http://www.nehalemnews.com/2008/06/rumor-lynnfield-havendale-slipping-to.html -
apache_lives Sources said last time it was running @ 3.2ghz now there saying "we can confirm that the system was running at a very impressive clock rate. We’ll go out on a limb here and say that nothing else currently available on the market matches it" - are they refering to clock speed (as in could it be upto 4ghz now?) or overall performance which is better then (IPC wise) a Core2 based cpu at the same clock? either way Intel's 45nm come stock @ 3.2, what can this monster do?Reply
Core 3 Quad???........... -
jimmysmitty Well from what I have read Nehalem will be able to offer better performance at the same thermal envelop (TDP) and the same performance at a much lower thermal envelope. So basically it will have better IPC and higher clocks using the same power as a Cors 2 Quad or run at a lower clock rate and still offer the same performance as a Core 2 Quad.Reply
I just can't wait for the bench marks.....