A Field Guide to Intel's Nehalem revealed

A FEW MONTHS AGO, we told you about Bloomfield, but not much about it. Let's shed a little more light. It is the desktop version of the upcoming 'Nehalem' family of cores, the replacement for the Merom et al cores. Basically, Bloomfield is to Conroe as Conroe is to Prescott/Cedar Mill.

Those who know Intel also know that it doesn't do things alone, but like celebrity deaths, it does things in threes. In this case, there are mobile and server variants, and they are called Gilo and Gainestown respectively. All are supposed to be four cores, but since it is three years out, a lot can change in that time.

The weird thing is that it will be a step down from Dunnington in the core department, but may very well do an MCM or JAB(1) version to pump up the core count. I am told to expect miracles, and judging from the people involved, that shouldn't be to far off. µ

(1) Yes, I know there is no more bus, so JAB (joined at bus) is technically not right. Until I hear a name for the inter-CPU links, I will stick with JAB because JAX looks stupid.