Intel Core i7 920 & 965 EE CPUs - Introducing Nehalam
- By Abbas Jaffar Ali
- Published 1 November 2008
- CPU/Motherboards/Memory
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Rating:
The last time Intel introduced their new CPU was the Core 2 which replaced the aging Pentium with the Netburst architecture. At that time, AMD was doing quite well in the higher-end segment but Core 2 totally took away AMD’s thunder. Unfortunately Phenom couldn’t shake things off to put AMD back into the lead and before they get a second chance, Intel is launching another new generation of CPUs today.
Codenamed Bloomfield, this well-anticipated successor in the ‘Core’ series has been officially labeled as the Core i7. Its is the first CPU to be based on Intel’s new Nehalem micro-architecture and it comes with a host of unique features. One of the most talked about feature of the Nehalem is the integrated memory controller which is something AMD’s has been doing for a while as well. However, the Core i7 supports the latest generation of DDR3 RAM in Triple channel.
We say “Hello” once again to Hyper-Threading, making the quad-cores of Nehalem appear as eight logical cores with two threads per core. With the demise of the memory controller residing on the Northbridge, the Front Side Bus (FSB) is also replaced by Intel's Quick Path Interconnect (QPI)- a point to point interconnect between the CPU and the I/O hub which is, once again, somewhat similar to HyperTransport used in AMD CPUs. Adding to this is “Turbo Boost” that changes the way we’re used to overclocking with previous Intel CPUs.
The first Core i7 processors launching today are the 920 @ 2.66GHz, 940 @ 2.93GHz and the 965EE @ 3.20GHz, all of which are quad core processors based on a 45nm fabrication process. They’re a bit bigger is size than previous Core 2 CPUs and the new socket packaging is LGA1366
Unfortunately, we missed Intel’s Nehalem training sessions due to the myriad of tech and gaming related shows in Dubai so we cant really go into much detail about the architecture simply because we’re not prepared to. What we do have is a shot of the Die for your viewing pleasure.
The following is a small table with details on the three CPUs that Intel is introducing.
Lets take a look at the rest of the goodies Intel provided.
Codenamed Bloomfield, this well-anticipated successor in the ‘Core’ series has been officially labeled as the Core i7. Its is the first CPU to be based on Intel’s new Nehalem micro-architecture and it comes with a host of unique features. One of the most talked about feature of the Nehalem is the integrated memory controller which is something AMD’s has been doing for a while as well. However, the Core i7 supports the latest generation of DDR3 RAM in Triple channel.
We say “Hello” once again to Hyper-Threading, making the quad-cores of Nehalem appear as eight logical cores with two threads per core. With the demise of the memory controller residing on the Northbridge, the Front Side Bus (FSB) is also replaced by Intel's Quick Path Interconnect (QPI)- a point to point interconnect between the CPU and the I/O hub which is, once again, somewhat similar to HyperTransport used in AMD CPUs. Adding to this is “Turbo Boost” that changes the way we’re used to overclocking with previous Intel CPUs.
The first Core i7 processors launching today are the 920 @ 2.66GHz, 940 @ 2.93GHz and the 965EE @ 3.20GHz, all of which are quad core processors based on a 45nm fabrication process. They’re a bit bigger is size than previous Core 2 CPUs and the new socket packaging is LGA1366
Unfortunately, we missed Intel’s Nehalem training sessions due to the myriad of tech and gaming related shows in Dubai so we cant really go into much detail about the architecture simply because we’re not prepared to. What we do have is a shot of the Die for your viewing pleasure.
The following is a small table with details on the three CPUs that Intel is introducing.
| Processor | Speed | QPI | Cache | Memory Supported | TDP |
| Core i7-965 EE | 3.20 GHz | 6.4 GT/sec | 8 MB | DDR3-1066 | 130W |
| Core i7-940 | 2.93 GHz | 4.8 GT/sec | 8 MB | DDR3-1066 | 130W |
| Core i7-920 | 2.66 GHz | 4.8 GT/sec | 8 MB | DDR3-1066 | 130W |
Lets take a look at the rest of the goodies Intel provided.
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