Intel to launch nine 45nm CPUs in November

Author: Richard Swinburne
Published: 20th August 2007
Comments (14) Stumble
Penryn die shots... mmm shiny!

Penryn die shots... mmm shiny!

Intel will offer a choice of nine processors when it launches the 45nm Penryn family in November this year. From the line up there will be five dual-core "Wolfdale" CPUs at speeds 3.16GHz, 3.0GHz, 2.83GHz and 2.66GHz and four quad-core "Yorkfield" processors at 2.83GHz, 2.66GHz and 2.5GHz.

The rest of the speeds are as yet unknown and is probably a sign of Intel holding back to see how much grip AMD's quad-core Barcelona will have on the market when it arrives.

Intel is going to start using 0.5x multipliers again to open up more speed options, given that all the CPUs will have the 1333MHz front side bus making the difference between whole multiplier core speeds quite large. This will also mean at least a BIOS update for existing motherboards in order to make them compatible with the new chips.

Interesting also is that Intel is so confident in the 45nm process that it's suggesting clock speeds of up to 4GHz. The "fastest" CPU Intel ever produced was the mammoth 115W 3.8GHz 90nm dual-core Pentium D 670, with the 4GHz 680 never actually seeing the life of day. 4GHz should result in a killer CPU on the performance from, especially given that Penryn is tipped to be even faster than Conroe. Of course, there's also the fact that the reduced current leakage as a result of moving to the 45nm should mean it'll be fairly cool-running too.

However, before we speculate too much on that front, we'll wait until some more solid information comes out of the grape vine.

The Wolfdale chips are natively dual-core and feature a 6MB shared L2 cache, which is up from the 4MB shared L2 on the current Conroe processors. Yorkfield is just an evolution of the Kentsfield package with two dual-core Wolfdale dies on a single CPU package, meaning four cores and a massive of 12MB L2 cache. It won't be until Nehalem arrives that we will finally get a native quad-core product from Intel.

There is no word on prices yet as we're still a few months off, but we're hoping it'll at least drop the prices of current Intel 65nm CPUs so we'll get another "Q6600 G0" situation.

Looking forward to Penryn (the CPU, not the Cornish Village) or are you still pining for a holiday in Barcelona? Let us know your future digital travels in the forums!
Quote mclean007 20th August 2007, 18:17
Still waiting for numbers on Barcelona, but Penryn is looking enormously promising! The post-Netburst era is an exciting time for processor development, isn't it? Intel was getting a bit stale before, but it seems to be doing no wrong these days.
Quote Yubalostia 20th August 2007, 18:25
exciting times indeed... while I wish that AMD rules this CPU war, if Intel's advantage widens then I'm afraid for AMD's future...

seeing Penryn is not native quad, however, makes me want to wait, too, for Barcelona numbers, thank you very much.
Quote The_Beast 20th August 2007, 18:34
wow, 45nm, runs cool, 4Ghz(maybe), 12Mb cache, quad core but what is the price
Quote zoom314 20th August 2007, 18:40
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yubalostia
exciting times indeed... while I wish that AMD rules this CPU war, if Intel's advantage widens then I'm afraid for AMD's future...

seeing Penryn is not native quad, however, makes me want to wait, too, for Barcelona numbers, thank you very much.

Native or not, A Quads a Quad. ;) Maybe there will be a price decrease for the existing cpus when Penryn comes out. ;) ;) Like half off the current Q6600 pricing, It might be a pipe dream, But It would sure be nice.
Quote cosmic 20th August 2007, 18:40
Looks like these are replacements for existing processors, so price points may well be similar to existing models. That is not to say that they will introduce a new Quad for the same price as a Q6600 - to me that pricing was a one off
Quote vegettoxp 20th August 2007, 19:45
Man I was looking at getting the Q6600 G0 and get Penryn when it comes out. But now that Penryn is due to come out in November of this year, why throw money on Q6600 when I can get the Penryn (Hopefully for a really good price). Right now I am waiting for the X38 Motherboards to start to come out (September) Intel or Asus. And when Penryn comes out, it will be good times once again. Can wait for my new system!
Quote mattthegamer463 20th August 2007, 20:29
Quote:
The "fastest" CPU Intel ever produced was the mammoth 115W 3.8GHz 90nm dual-core Pentium D 670, with the 4GHz 680 never actually seeing the life of day.

Shouldn't that be the light of day?

Nice article, I might just upgrade to one of these new chips in November.
Quote yakyb 20th August 2007, 21:16
correct me if im wrong but aren't these the server models
Quote robbybertu15 20th August 2007, 21:22
So when is bit tech going to get their hands on some of these CPU's? And when is Barcelona supposedly being released?
Quote devdevil85 20th August 2007, 21:55
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yubalostia
exciting times indeed... while I wish that AMD rules this CPU war, if Intel's advantage widens then I'm afraid for AMD's future...
sounds like another Star Wars trilogy to me!, except for it being AMD/Intel and not the Sith/Jedi....am I the only one who sees this correlation? lol

Use the force AMD, use the fooorrccee.....and get me a better CPU with a cheaper price than what Intel can offer! Sorry for the cheesy line, but AMD really needs to get out of this 'slump'...
Quote Tulatin 21st August 2007, 05:57
Heh. Well isn't this a dick move for Intel. They started the year with "nah, we won't release Peryn this year", and to their chargin, AMD gives a relieved agreement with a lack of Barcelonas... then they come right back out. A 115/135W, 4GHz from the box C2D would be nuts, but not as crazy as a 165W from the box C2Q.
Quote Denis_iii 21st August 2007, 07:31
when is the intel cpu with integrated memory controller coming? whats its code name?
is AMD's bus still superior to intels and if so when will intel attack them on this front?
Quote naokaji 21st August 2007, 08:04
Quote:
Originally Posted by Denis_iii
when is the intel cpu with integrated memory controller coming? whats its code name?
is AMD's bus still superior to intels and if so when will intel attack them on this front?

codename for intels cpu with integrated memory controller is nehalem, its due to be released in 2nd half of 08.
Quote fluxity 23rd August 2007, 23:33
Gawwwdd, everytime you settle for something and decide what you're gunna build, a new technology is just around the bend.

Are these Penryn's going to be worth the wait or will the price be stupidly high like the quad extremes. As the G0 Q6600 is very tempting
Log in

You are not logged in, please login with your forum account below. If you don't already have an account please register to start contributing.





Stats: 0.026 seconds