From:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9119540&intsrc=hm_list


Intel Corp. has scheduled the launch of its first Nehalem chip for Nov. 17, which also will be the day several PC makers begin shipping desktop computers running the new processor.

Steve Smith, vice president and director of operations for Intel's digital enterprise group, told Computerworld earlier this week that the first Nehalem chip, officially named Core i7, will be a quad-core designed for high-end desktops for power users and gamers. Intel has been shipping previews of the chips to hardware vendors since September.

Rob Enderle, an analyst at Enderle Group, said this week that he has been test-driving an Intel-built desktop running the quad-core chip with hyper-threading turned on, so it's virtually an eight-core processor. "It's FAST. It's really fast," said Enderle.

The analyst also noted that the chip shows "significant improvement" in power efficiency, a key requirement for high-performance computing.

The Nehalem architecture features a 45-nanometer, four-core processor with an integrated memory CONTROLLER that eliminates the need for a front-side bus. The new architecture is modular, which will make it easier to scale chips from TWO to eight cores, officials say.

The Core i7 chips also are being designed to have two-way, simultaneous multithreading. They will also use Intel's QuickPath interconnect and have a three-level cache hierarchy, Intel said.

Smith said that an eight-core Nehalem is slated to ship in the second half of 2009, and two-core and four-core Nehalem chips for laptops should ship at about the same time.Wonder how hot it runs...According to what i've READ as cool as the later Quad core series...
My Q6600 runs quite cool.

I future-proofed and made sure my board would support these new chips thinking i may get one in 2 years....now i don't think i'll wait that long !