Intel launches first six-core desktop processor, the $999 Core i7 980X Extreme Edition

Intel officially launched today its first hexa-core desktop processor, the Core i7 980X Extreme Edition. The codenamed Gulftown chip features six 32nm cores clocked at 3.33GHz, reaching a maximum Turbo Boost clock speed of 3.6GHz for single-threaded operations, it has a massive 12MB L3 cache, and is capable of running 12 threads simultaneously with Intel's Hyper-threading technology.

With the exception of support for some new instructions dubbed AES-NI (Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions), which accelerate AES encryption and decryption algorithms in hardware, everything else remains the same as Bloomfield. This means a triple channel controller supporting DDR3 memory at up to 1066MHz (although it will easily run higher speeds), and the QPI link running at a full 6.4GT/s.


Despite offering 50% more cores and 50% more cache than previous generation Bloomfield processors, the new Core i7 980X maintains the same 130W power envelope thanks to the newer 32nm process. It also shares the same LGA-1366 socket, so the chip will be fully compatible with existing X58 motherboards after a BIOS update.

The Core i7 980X will essentially replace the 45nm Core i7 975 Extreme Edition as Intel's new flagship. While the latter will still be available, the new six-core processor will be offered at the same $999 price point, making it quite simply the most powerful and advanced desktop processor money can buy. Check out some reviews at AnandTech, PC Perspective, and The Tech Report.

Fun Facts: How Small is 32 Nanometers?

Earlier this year Intel made a big splash with a new generation of Core i3 and Core i5 processors using the uber small 32 nanometer manufacturing process. Although this is eventually going to get dumped as ancient technology for an even smaller and more efficient way to produce chips, today it's state of the art.
Intel recently published a whitepaper with some amusing 32nm facts that we are reproducing here for you. If you have ever wondered how small the logic inside these chips really is in 'measurable' terms, here are some random facts to give you some perspective:

• A nanometer is so small that it takes a billion of them to make a meter. A billion is a huge number. A stack of a billion sheets of paper would be 100 km high. If you could walk a billion steps, you would go around the earth 20 times.
• The original transistor built by Bell Labs in 1947 was large enough that it was pieced together by hand. By contrast, more than 60 million 32nm transistors could fit onto the head of a pin.
• More than 4 million 32nm transistors could fit in the period at the end of this sentence.
• A 32nm transistor contains gates that are so small, you could fit 3,000 of them across the width of a human hair.
• A 32nm transistor can switch on and off over 300 billion times in one second. It would take you 4000 years to flick a light switch on and off that many times.

• Compared to Intel’s first microprocessor, the 4004, introduced in 1971, a 32nm CPU runs over 4000 times as fast and each transistor uses about 4000 times less energy. The price per transistor has dropped by a factor of about 100,000.
• The “World’s Fastest Man,” Usain Bolt would have to take 3,125,000,000 steps in the 100 meter dash if his stride length was 32nm.
• If the pace of innovation in space travel had increased at the pace of Moore’s Law since 1971, you would now be able to travel at the speed of light, 671 million miles per hour.
• Intel has shipped over 200 million CPUs using high-k/metal-gate transistors – the kind used in 32nm processors -- since the technology was first put into production in November 2007. This translates to over 50,000,000,000,000,000 (50 quadrillion) transistors, or the equivalent of over 7 million transistors for every man, woman and child on earth.
• The price per transistor on a chip has dropped dramatically since Intel was founded in 1968. Some people estimate that the price of a transistor is now about the same as that of one printed newspaper character.

Core i7 980 Extreme Edition crops up

€1.099,-

We’ve written about this CPU on plenty of occasions, but our colleagues from TechReport have come across an EU listing of Intel’s new addition to its i7 series – the Core i7 980 Extreme Edition.

We’ll recap real quick – this is the first six core CPU for desktops and are based on 32nm Westmere architecture. It comes with HyperThreading, 12MB of L3 cache and supports turbo boost up to 3.6GHz. It features DDR3 support up to 1066MHz and its TDP will be at 130W.

The listing puts the CPU’s price at € 1.099,-, which is pretty good as the same retailer sells i7-975 Extreme Edition at only a tad lower price. The e-tailer lists availability date as March 14th.

You can find the CPU listed here. (in German)


Written by Nedim Hadzic, Fudzilla

New Westmere Details Emerge: Power Efficiency and 4/6 Core Plans

Today Intel started talking about its ISSCC plans and included in the conference call were some details on Westmere that I previously didn't know. Most of it has to do with power savings, but also some talk about 32nm quad-core Westmere derivatives!

Intel's 6-core Gulftown to debut as Core i7 980X

PC online has leaked an Intel published slide showing what appears to be the official branding for its upcoming six-core Gulftown processor. Long rumored to be released with the Core i9 identifier, the 32nm Westmere based chip will reportedly debut as the Core i7 980X instead, featuring 3.3GHz clock speeds and a whopping 12MB of L3 cache.

Individual cores will be able to hit up to 3.6GHz thanks to Turbo Boost, while Hyper-Threading support will allow it to juggle 12 threads in total. TDP remains constant at 130W helped by the newer fabrication process. The LGA 1366 chip will be able to drop straight into existing X58 motherboards, following a BIOS update, and should replace the Core i7 975 this March as Intel's flagship desktop product -- at the same $999 price point.

AMD's six-core Thuban processor is expected to hit around the same time as the Core i7 980X. However, in terms of performance, they are expected to compete for a completely different market, perhaps taking on Intel's Lynnfield Core i5 and i7 quad core CPUs.

By Jose Vilches, TechSpot.com 

AMD's 2010 - 2011 Roadmaps: ~1B Transistor Llano APU, Bobcat and Bulldozer

It’s got roughly one billion 32nm transistors, fabbed at Globalfoundries. Four CPU cores and a single graphics core. It’s what AMD calls an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). And we’ll see it in 2011.
Unfortunately that’s a bit late. The APU, codenamed Llano, was originally scheduled for 2010 but got pushed back. In 2009/2010 Intel will be the first to deliver on-chip graphics with Clarkdale/Arrandale, and in late 2010 Sandy Bridge will have on-die graphics.

The first die shot of AMD's 32nm Llano APU based on 32nm Phenom II cores

Above is what I believe to be a die shot of AMD’s first APU. The CPU doesn’t use AMD’s next-generation microarchitecture, that’s only for the server and high end in 2011. The first APU will use the existing Phenom II architecture on the same die as DX11 graphics, but at 32nm. Sandy Bridge will use a brand new microprocessor architecture on 32nm but with updated Intel integrated graphics. It looks like Sandy Bridge will have the CPU advantage while Llano might have the GPU advantage, assuming Intel can't get their GPU act together by then. Llano is on schedule to debut in 2011 with OEM sampling happening before the end of the year.
Also on schedule is AMD’s next-generation microarchitecture, codenamed Bulldozer. AMD listed its client PC goals for 2010 at this year’s Financial Analyst Day, one of them is to start sampling its next-generation microprocessor next year - in 2010. If the chip is ready for OEMs by the end of 2010, that means it’ll go on sale as early as 1H 2011.

Unfortunately AMD isn’t talking much about Bulldozer architecture, I suspect we won’t see that disclosure until mid to late 2010. It’s not to keep things secret, we already have many estimates of what Bulldozer’s architecture is going to look like. And if the public already knows, then Intel is also well aware of what AMD has coming in 2011. Updated: AMD has given a high level overview of its Bulldozer and Bobcat architectures here
A major focus is going to be improving on one of AMD’s biggest weaknesses today: heavily threaded performance. Intel addresses it with Hyper Threading, AMD is throwing a bit more hardware at the problem. The dual integer clusters you may have heard of are the route AMD is taking...

VIA intros Nano 3000 Series processors

VIA has announced its new Nano 3000 Series processors, which are said to offer enhanced digital media performance and less power consumption for ultrathin notebooks

and all-in-one desktops. The new line brings strong competition to Intel's Atom CPU, and consists of six 64-bit Isaiah-based chips.
VIA's Nano 3000 processors are clocked between 1GHz and 2GHz with an 800MHz FSB, and feature SSE4 instructions, hardware virtualization, and Windows 7 and Linux compatibility. Along with being 20% more power efficient than current-gen Nano processors, they are also said to be capable of delivering 20% more performance, and are able to play 1080p video.

The latest Nano chips use the same NanoBGA2 package, which should allow hardware vendors to easily upgrade existing systems. Samples are currently available for OEMs and motherboard vendors, and mass production will begin in the first quarter of next year.

Product Name	Speed	VIA V4 FSB	Idle Power
L3100	2.0GHz	800MHz	500mW
L3050	1.8GHz	800MHz	500mW
U3200	1.4GHz	800MHz	100mW
U3100	1.3+GHz	800MHz	100mW
U3300	1.2GHz	800MHz	100mW
U3500	1.0GHz	800MHz	100mW

Tilera touts 100-core server processor

Looking to make its way into a market dominated by Intel and AMD, Tilera Corporation, a five-year-old fabless semiconductor startup focusing on scalable multi-core embedded processor design has unveiled the new Tile-GX series of server CPUs. Available with 16, 36, 64, and up to 100 cores, the company claims its chips offer the highest performance of any microprocessor yet announced while operating efficiently at the same time.

They are built on TSMC's 40 nanometer process and can work at up to 1.50GHz with power consumption ranging from 10 to 55 watts. While this may seem like no match for Intel’s Nehalem processors which top out at around 3.3GHz (and burn up to 130 watts), Tilera's view is to increase performance by having many cores running at modest clock speeds rather than just driving up clock frequency.

The new Tile-GX series is based around a two-dimensional iMesh interconnect, which eliminates the need for an on-chip bus, and a Dynamic Distributed Cache system that allows each core's local cache to be shared coherently across the entire chip. According to the firm, this interconnect system is able to feed data into the chip's cores at very high rates of speed so performance can scale almost linearly with the number of cores.

Both Intel and AMD are also working on growing the number of cores on their processors and expanding the reach of their architectures, but Tilera claims to have a clear advantage in performance-per watt. Of course, they'll face an uphill battle competing with established players and the huge codebase behind their x86 architecture, but Tilera claims some top-tier system makers have already shown interest in their products and at least one is running their multi-core chips on test systems.

By Jose Vilches, TechSpot.com 

Intel to allow 2GB RAM with future Atom N470 netbooks

If you've been in the market for a netbook at any given moment for the past year, you may have noticed how manufacturers are basically just putting different enclosures around the same hardware -- 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 160 or 250GB hard drives, and no more than 1GB of RAM. This is largely the result of restrictions set by Intel and Microsoft, and apparently with the arrival of Intel's Pine Trail platform early next year things won't be too different.

According to Fudzilla, netbooks based on the upcoming 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor, which will debut in January featuring an on-die graphics core and memory controller, will still be tied to the 1GB limit. These systems should also have display sizes ranging from 7" to 10.2", either a 120GB hard drive or up to 20GB of solid-state storage, and a four-cell battery -- but on the flip side should start selling for as low as $250.

Further down the road, around March 2010, the 1.83GHz Atom N470 will reportedly allow running 2GB of RAM and up to 32GB of solid-state storage. The higher limit should provide a decent jump in performance for netbooks, while still targeting the $299 to $349 price points.

These restrictions are aimed at making a clear distinction between netbooks and ultraportables, while protecting the profit margins from more lucrative CULV-based offerings.

By Jose Vilches, TechSpot.com 

Does Turbo Boost Help Or Hurt Core i5/i7's Power Efficiency?

Intel’s new LGA 1156-based processors, namely the Core i5-700- and Core i7-800-series, arrived with a bang. Our launch article by Chris Angelini provides all the key information. But, in short, the new processor delivers increased performance compared to Core 2 Quad. No surprise there. But Intel also claims that power consumption went down significantly, so we decided to tackle this prospect with a closer look.

Core i5, i7: Intel’s new processors for LGA 1156.

The Core i5 Innovation

The new P55 platform and Intel’s Lynnfield processors make a are impressive enough from a performance angle, but I’d like to look at the facts from a different perspective. The platform’s foundation still centers on the Nehalem architecture first seen as Core i7 for LGA 1366 late last year, hence the level of innovation in Lynnfield is less revolutionary and more of an evolution.

Intel is great at tweaking, though. From a technology standpoint, Core i5 incorporates a lot more integration, stepping closer to the inevitable SoC (system-on-chip) future by adding PCI Express onto the die. A more aggressive implementation of Turbo Boost adds extra performance for non-threaded applications. Considering that Intel plans to integrate graphics with Clarkdale in coming months, this step could also be looked at as a necessity. Improved Turbo Boost is another building block for turning dynamic overclocking into a real feature. In reality, though, the large motherboard makers have been offering similar features for a few years already.

I see two main benefits of the new LGA 1156 processors for buyers. First, you have decreased power consumption thanks to the integrated memory controller and PCI Express 2.0 interface. The second benefit is performance. Turbo Boost helps to elevate LGA 1156-based parts to Core i7-900-class performance levels in certain applications. Both benefits became obvious in our article, Intel’s Mainstream Magnum Opus.