14 DAY TRIAL // The first models of Intel's ready-to-come Nehalems processors, or Core i7, as the company announced their brand name would be, are expected to hit the market this October. The new Intel chips were reported to range from two to eight cores, and they would also come with a triple channel DDR3 memory controller with up to 1333 MHz clock speed.
Some could legitimately wonder why the chips do not go for the 1600 FSB but, despite that, the CPUs are still expected to get ahead of all the other products currently available on the market. The processors will support multi-threading, and will use Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) bus.
The first versions of the new architecture are known as Bloomfield. They have already been announced for a Q3 release, and are literally within weeks from hitting the market. Intel will have the chips aiming for the extreme, performance and mainstream segments, as October is said to bring us three Bloomfields, namely the Core i7 Extreme Edition Bloomfield, Core i7 Performance Edition Bloomfield, and the Core i7 Mainstream Edition Bloomfield.
The mainstream model will feature a 2.66GHz clock speed, four cores, 8MB cache, and a DDR3 800/1066/1333 MHz memory controller. The performance version comes with a 2.93GHz core clock, four cores, 8MB cache, and a DDR3 800/1066/1333 MHz memory controller. As for the Core i7 Extreme Edition chip, it will feature a 3.20GHz core clock, but will have the same four cores, cache and memory controller as the other two Nehalem models.
All three Bloomfield processors will come on the LGA1366 socket, and will feature a 130W TDP (Thermal Design Power). The price for the new chips ranges from $284 for the Core i7 Mainstream Edition, to $562 for the Core i7 Performance Edition, and $999 for the Core i7 Extreme Edition.