Intel to unveil eight core CPU next month

Posted at: 3:46pm 30th January 2009 by Ben Hardwidge

Eight core Xeon with 16 threads to be discussed at ISSCC on 9 February

Intel’s Xeons have always been given the Formula 1 treatment when it comes to trying out new technologies. The server and workstation series of CPUs brought us Hyper-Threading and even Nvidia’s SLI technology before they hit the desktop, and now Intel is set to unveil its first eight-core Xeon CPU at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) on 9 February.

The session is listed in the event’s online programme, and the summary describes a new ‘8-core 16-thread enterprise Xeon processor,’ which will feature a whopping 2.3 billion 45nm transistors. The following session will also continue to discuss Intel’s ‘next-generation IA processors with up to 8 cores,’ which the programme says will feature three levels of cache and a maximum TDP of 130W. As well as this, the programme says that the CPU family ‘has a coherent point-to-point link and integrates memory controller, power-management microcontroller and power-gate transistors.’

Although the codename of the CPU isn’t revealed, it’s clearly based on Intel’s new Nehalem architecture, which means it’s highly likely to be based on the Nehalem-EP design (pictured) mentioned in Intel’s CPU roadmap at IDF in August 2008. The Nehalem-EP platform will have two CPU sockets, each with independent triple-channel memory controllers, and it will also use Intel’s X58 chipset, meaning that it can also have PCI-E 2.0 graphics.

Basically, although it’s branded as an ‘enterprise’ platform, it could also be appropriate for enthusiasts looking to build a multi-threaded monster (that’s 32 threads with Hyper-Threading enabled) and even put in some decent graphics cards. Last year, Intel unveiled its first six-core ‘Dunnington’ Xeon CPUs in September, but these were still based on the Core 2 architecture rather than the Nehalem architecture.

Although eight-core processors make more sense for servers and workstations than desktop PCs at the moment, we’re still likely to see eight-core CPUs in desktop PCs in the near future. Would you be interested in building a 16-core PC based on the new CPUs? Let us know your thoughts on multi-threading in the comments section below.

Via Macworld