Nehalem CPUs to feature Turbo Mode

Posted at: 12:12pm 20th August 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

Pat Gelsinger reveals some more titbits about Nehalem, including its ability to run individual cores at different clock speeds

Today at IDF Fall 2008: With motherboards such as Asus’ tasty-looking P6T Deluxe in the works, the build-up to Intel’s new Nehalem CPU architecture is getting even more exciting. What’s more, Intel has also just revealed a few more nuggets of information about the new CPU architecture, one of which is that the chips will feature a Turbo Mode.

The idea of the Turbo Mode is that active cores can run at a higher speed than normal in response to workload demands. Speaking at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, Gelsinger proudly explained that the mode ‘shifts the processor into a higher gear for mind-blowing performance without a heat penalty.’ This feature comes in addition to Intel’s Power Gates technology, which allows Nehalem’s individual cores to be switched on and off when needed, and run individual cores at independent voltages and clock frequencies.

Gelsinger also said that production of quad-core versions of the chips, now officially named Core i7, will start in the final quarter of this year. The CPUs will feature Hyper-Threading, allowing eight threads to be executed simultaneously, as well as an integrated triple-channel DDR3 memory controller and 8MB of Intel Smart Cache.

‘Our engineers have put together an incredible processing family here that will include a tremendous amount of new processor features all centred on delivering faster computer performance and terrific energy efficiency, said Gelsinger.

Of course, most of the new technology in Nehalem isn’t specifically new. AMD launched its AMD64 architecture with an integrated memory controller in 2003, and AMD’s native quad-core Phenom CPUs also have the ability to run individual cores at separate voltages and clock frequencies.