It’s been only weeks that Intel, the Santa Clara, California-based global leading processor maker, first introduced its highly anticipated series of the Core i7 processors, built on the company's new architecture codenamed Nehalem. The new central processing units brought to light a number of new features, previously unavailable on the company's products, which, combined, enabled the highest-performance desktop processor to date.

 

However, the higher performance capabilities available with current Core i7 processors have also enabled the chip maker to list its products at rather high prices, which most PC users aren't likely to afford. Fortunately, Intel's CPU roadmap also includes a lower-priced alternative to the Core i7, codenamed Lynnfield.

 

The Lynnfield CPU models are to follow Intel's current Core i7 processors, codenamed Bloomfield. These new processors are slated to launch sometime in Q3 2009, and will be designed for the mainstream market, coming with a price tag of under $200. Despite the fact that we are still far from an official release, it appears that one of the Lynnfield model processors has already been put through its paces, with the partial results being uploaded on the Internet.

 

We can't be sure on which model the test was run, but according to details on HardSpell, the CPU in question boasted a 2.13GHz core frequency, while the system itself featured 4GB of DDR3-1066 memory for laptops, a Seagate 7200.1 160GB HDD and a PCI-Express X1 NVS290 VGA card. The operating system was the Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. The specific results of the tests haven't been provided in their entirety, but that changes nothing about the interesting fact that some lucky user out there had a chance to test a platform based on said CPU.

 

The Lynnfield CPU is also based on Nehalem, and is expected to boast Intel's Turbo Boost Technology, Hyper-Threading technology (4 cores to take on 8 threads), 8MB of Intel Smart Cache, integrated memory controller with support for dual-channel DDR3 and a Direct Media Interface, to replace the current QPI on Core i7 CPUs.