Introduction
2008 may be the year of the dog (in the Chinese calendar), but Intel has proved their new CPUs are anything but a dog. The new lines of 45nm CPUs provide denser transistors for better power management, faster FSB speeds, and less electrical leakage. We’ll take a look at the latest Intel Penryn family processors, examine benchmarks between desktops and their laptop counterpart, and introduce the Nehalem architecture that arrived in the fourth quarter of 2008, with the Core i7 920, 945, and 965 processors.
Intel has largely been moving into the mobile market with their Atom line of processors making its debut this year. The Atom processor became possible with the 45nm architecture and the rising interest in the mobile market. The Atom processor will be a key component of Intel’s mobile market share as they compete with the likes of AMD and VIA, but the chip maker has increased their desktop and laptop processor viability as well.
The new Intel Extreme processors, like the Yorkfield processor family, feature the latest 45nm technology and 820 million transistors, as compared to the previous Kentsfield processor family that had 586 million transistors. The increased density of transistors gives the processor faster response time and less electrical loss. The Yorkfield variants include the QX9770, QX9650, Q9550, Q9450, and Q9300.The previous generation Dual core processors include the E8500, E7200, E6750 and E6600.
|
Processor
|
Clock Speed
|
L2 Cache
|
FSB
|
|
Dual Core 2 Extreme QX9775
|
3.2GHz
|
12MB
|
1600MHz
|
|
Core 2 Extreme QX9770
|
3.2GHz
|
12MB
|
1600MHz
|
|
Core 2 Duo E8500
|
3.16 GHz
|
6MB
|
1333 MHz
|
|
Core 2 Extreme QX9650
|
3.0GHz
|
12MB
|
1333MHz
|
|
Core 2 Extreme QX6850
|
3.0GHz
|
8MB
|
1333MHz
|
|
Core 2 Duo E8400
|
3.0GHz
|
6MB
|
1333MHz
|
|
Core 2 Extreme QX6800
|
2.93GHz
|
8MB
|
1066MHz
|
|
Core 2 Quad Q9550
|
2.83GHz
|
12MB
|
1333MHz
|
|
Core 2 Quad Q9450
|
2.66GHz
|
12MB
|
1333MHz
|
|
Core 2 Duo E6750
|
2.66GHz
|
4MB
|
1333MHz
|
|
Core 2 Duo E7200
|
2.53 GHz
|
3MB
|
1066MHz
|
|
Core 2 Quad Q9300
|
2.5GHz
|
6MB
|
1333MHz
|
|
Core 2 Quad Q6600
|
2.4GHz
|
8MB
|
1066MHz
|
|
Core 2 Duo E6600
|
2.4GHz
|
4MB
|
1066MHz
|
The Yorkfields' utilize two Wolfdale cores in one die. The new CPUs feature a 50% increase in cache size. All the Yorkfield processors come from the Penryn family of processors. The Penryn family consists of both dual and quad core processors. The major advancements include the increased cache size, 45nm architecture, and 820 million transistors. The Penryn processors also branch into the Xeon processor family for servers. |