The proper basis for a marriage is mutual misunderstanding - Oscar Wilde
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Intel readies its Westmere chips
INTEL HAS TAKEN the wraps off its upcoming series of Westmere processors, the 32nm version of the Nehalem architecture, with chips dubbed Clarkdale for the desktop version and Arrandale for mobile.
Hitting the 'Tock' on Intel's TickTock process schedule, these LGA1156 Core i3 and i5 dual core processors can have a graphics unit and DDR3 memory controller integrated in the package, lowering production costs and system footprint as well as opening up a host of enhanced power management features and minimising latency between the CPU, GPU and memory controller.
As well as scaling down the die size, Westmere offers a handful of new instructions, most of which centre around AES mathematical operations in order to boost data encryption and decryption speeds.
Based on the Nehalem architecture, Westmere supports both Hyperthreading and Turbo Boost, with the former providing two instruction threads per core and the latter allowing the system to dynamically shut down unused cores in order to divert power to overclock the active cores to boost performance when using lightly threaded applications.
The Turbo Boost feature is not available in the budget Core i3 chips.
As can be seen from the photo, the Intel GMA is a 45nm chip embedded alongside the 32nm CPU. It's almost inevitable that the GPU will eventually being scaled to 32nm as well, although there is nothing currently on Intel's roadmap depicting this move.
While Chipzilla admits that its integrated graphics processor isn't going to cope with high-end gaming, it insists that the new GMA offers solid HD performance and can happily handle light or casual gaming.
Amongst other improvements to the graphics chip, Intel reckons its HD GPU can handle Blu-ray with dual video decode, for picture in picture Blu-ray playback, full hardware decode acceleration for AVC, VC1, and MPEG-2 formats, HDMI 1.3a, dual simultaneous HDMI and DisplayPort 1.1 with audio support.
The memory controller offers two memory channels and supports DDR3 up to 1333MHz for the desktop version and up to 1066 MHz for mobile.
Along with bringing the integrated graphics onto the processor, Intel has made a number of other enhancements on the graphics front, with a completely revamped control panel and platform support for optional switchable graphics between discrete and embedded for higher end notebooks.
By embedding the GPU onto the chip, the system can now use Dynamic Frequency to intelligently boost graphics performance, provided thermal and power headroom exist. Effectively this works similarly to the cores' Turbo Boost function, but includes the GPU versus CPU workload demand into the equation.
According to Intel, a system running its Core i5-430M chip will perform about twice as well as one running an Intel Core Duo T2250 processor, while a Core i5-650 powered desktop machine will go twice as fast as a Core 2 Duo Processor E6400.
The desktop and mobile lineups for 2010 are as follows:
The first Arrandale and Clarkdale systems are due to hit the shelves on 7 January with more to come later in the year. µ
Tags: Intel
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"Probably means playing WoW at average laptop resolutions (say 1440x900ish) with decent FPS. "
On an Intel graphics chip? LMAO. Doubtful. I'll believe it when I see it. Try 800x600 with settings on low.
Robi5, I can understand the confusion overall for a new user attempting to get into all these options today. But I feel it's not a hobby that should be entered alone and without help. These aren't Lego blocks that just fit and work after all :D
I wasn't confused by the Pentium 4 550/650/651/840/940/945, and few others were either. Here we're now just given a chipset choice which happens to be mated to a socket.
i7/i5/i3 are just levels to me and continue the 9/8/6/5xx tier names after that to decipher within and overall. When so many part exist due to binning/Skews, the naming scheme must follow. Otherwise, to lower the naming scheme means for them to squish higher binned chips lower in the naming scheme because we don't "get it"
It WILL be nice to have an i5 with hyperthreading; although the price for it may be close to i7 920's; so I'm skeptical for a while. But still I lust in nail-downs: an i5 661 in a s1156 p55 board should not be confused with an i7 920 in a s1366 x58 board. A p55 user already dictated that they may never get a 6x2(HT) triple channel build...and may never need it.
Not arguing at all, as I sum up the classes (i7/i5) to the Hummer versus Jeep. Some will overbuy an i7 for glory and never use it, while an i5 is a wonderfully capable foundation and only getting better with Westmere. In the end, I guess the wallet talks for us. Doh!
I do not think there are plans to scale the gma chip to 32 nm. Intel always releases a new architecture on their new process a year after releasing the die shrink of the old chips. The new architecture will have the CPU and GMA/GPU on the same die. In a sense it is scaling the gma, but being on the same die makes it a different beast entirely
Clarkdale isn't really using Nehalem architecture - its just a modded conroe with the northbridge in the same package. There are some performance gains but the memory access is half that of a core 9x, 8x and 7x series. From a corporate PC standpoint that makes a lot of sense but technology wise it's a rehash of an existing product.
"If hyperthreading isn't desired, then i5/i3."
except that this very article is about i3 and i5 and says hyperthreading is supported.
Intel's and AMD's naming nomenclature IS confusing to anyone who pays no daily attention. But a less confusing scheme would only make it obvious there is not much progre overall.
@ aNewbie: NO! TurboBoost has no limitations other than "max clock speed". TurboBoost actively overclocks the processor, on-the-fly, on-demand, as-needed. And the new 32nm chips will "smart" TurboBoost, by powering down 1 core, in real-time, to boost another one, if you're only using single-threaded apps.
If the SSD nowadays has no limited read/write cycles anymore? As I always heard that they can only be read/write for a certain of times...
If it still has, then these Tubo Boost CPU can only be useful within certain time limited, as the Tubo Boost will fail after reaching that limit?
So after I spend that much money to get a i7, and it will fail after a couple of years?
1) No i7 is dual core
2) All i7 offer hyperthreading
3) All CPU in 1156/p55 are dual-channel
From there, it's nailing down options: If triple channel isn't your thing, then you shop 1156/p55. If hyperthreading isn't desired, then i5/i3. If two cores are enough, then i3.
It can really be simple depending on how we look at it. Just ask yourself what you want in a CPU, the rest just falls into place.
Intel made all the processor numbers and names (i3, I5 , i7) all confusing. How does and average man or women going to understand which processor to get. You can get Core I7 in quad core or dual core on LGA 1336 , LGA 1156 or BGA and god know which is the best. Then you can get Core I5 which is faster than Core I7 (in some cases).
"Probably means a good lot of solitaire and minesweeper.
"Moderate" probably means doing both at once."
Probably means playing WoW at average laptop resolutions (say 1440x900ish) with decent FPS.
Probably means a good lot of solitaire and minesweeper.
"Moderate" probably means doing both at once.