Nehalem gets a name - Core i7
Intel has branded the first of its next-generation desktop processor, previously codenamed "Nehalem", the Core i7.
The full name of the new processors will be "Intel® Core™ i7 processor," but for simplicity I'll call then the i7's.
The i7 is the first Intel processor to put all four cores on the same piece of silicon, something that AMD is already doing with the Phenom and Opteron processors.
There will be two flavors of the i7 - the standard, represented by the blue logo, an a higher-end part called the Extreme Edition, which will have the black logo. Processor model numbers to differentiate the chips from each other.
So, what's the deal with the name? Well, there's no official word on that from Intel yet but from my memory it does seem that this is the seventh generation part:
- Pentium
- Pentium II
- Pentium III
- Pentium IV
- Core
- Core 2
- i7
Either way, the name i7 is short and catchy, though it does feel a little Appleish ... iPhone, iMac, iPod ... i7. Hmmm ...
The i7's are expected to go into production during Q4 of this year. Further versions are expected later, such as a server version, a mobile part and processors which have an integrated graphics processor.
For those who want a taste of things to come, MaximumPC take a look at a 2.93GHz Bloomfield part (LGA1366 as opposed to LGA775 we've come to expect for an Intel desktop CPU).
No price details have been released.