New article concerning Nehalem. http://www.realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT040208182719 The chip sounds very impressive from the description. The core has been improved, and the platform itself is significantly more flexible and capable. The few limitations that kept Conroe on a slightly lower level than Barcelona (if it had clocked worth beans) are pretty much fixed to the same level or better now. I'm curious how the L3 and smaller (yet faster) L2 will affect things.
The main thing that grabbed my attention in that article was that there appears to be only 1 quad core varient of Nehalem designed for the desktop in the guise of Bloomfield. The article describes this as being targetted at "high end" desktops and coming with most of the features available in Gainstown, i.e. 8MB L3, 3 intergrated memory channels etc... I can only assume that when they say "high end" they are referring to the same market that the Q6600 and above currently targets. i.e. that we will be able to pick up such a CPU in the $300 - $400 dollar range reasonably soon after launch. Also, it does worry me a little that they suggest SMT may be turned off in Bloomfield. I want 8 threads on my desktop ! Actually I want 16 but no mention of the 8 core variant yet. I assume it will be launched later as a dual die/single package solution.
Thats exactly what I thought before reading this article. But if Bloomfield = Extreme edition then it would imply no mainstream quad core Nehalem at all. I.e, you want a Nehalem and don't want to pay ~$1000 for an Extreme edition, you have to get a dual core. That to me makes little sense and it significantly diminishes Nehalems value as a desktop CPU for none budget consumers. I mean, given the choice between a quad Penryn or a dual Nehalem (minus SMT and triple lane memory) I think many would choose the quad Penryn at the same price. Of course, if performance is good enough the dual Nehalem may still be a better option.
I read nothing that stated the tri-channel DDR3 MC is to be used in all quad Nehalems. You'll still be able to buy a non-extreme Nehalem minus an MC channel and some L3 cache, likely.
According to that article the only other quad core aside from bloomfield and the Gainestown Xeon is a mobile chip. So on the desktop, its Bloomfield or nothing - according to the article.
Lower-end parts can have an MC channel and some cache disabled for yield and lower costs. Just because it's there doesn't mean Intel won't disable it
Well, not according to me! (read my news piece on the frontpage which links to this older news piece with the key info)
Cheers, it seems Lynnefield was the piece of the puzzle I was missing. I thought I remembered something about a lower end quad core!
Well according to Charlie from the inq , the chip, that Hexus saw running at 3,2 Ghz, was not a Nehalem, but a Harpertown. http://realworldtech.com/forums/index.cfm?action=detail&id=89005&threadid=88864&roomid=2
Yes, a lot can be done in the "uncore" without affecting the core unit(s). The tech looks great, just wish we were at Sandy Bay already. Love the sound of AVX...