Intel demos Nehalem 2nd generation 45nm CPU running Windows

Intel not only showed off its next generation 45nm Penryn processors at Intel fall IDF 2007 during CEO Paul Otellini keynote, they showed a three-week old second generation 45nm Nehalem processor running Windows XP.

What's notable about the Nehalem processor is that not only does this processor improve upon the execution engine in Penryn; it also includes a brand new memory architecture called "QuickPath" (AKA CSI) that will vastly improve the memory subsystem to allow the chip to scale multiple-cores.  Each Nehalem processor will have 4+ or 8+ cores with two threads per core which means it will be able to run 16 execution threads in hardware.  Current x86/x64 processors from Intel and just recently AMD have 4 cores and a total of 4 execution threads so Nehalem should be a massive jump in thread count, scalability, and performance.  [Update 3:00PM - I got a clarification that the first version of Nehalem will be 4 cores in 2008, the second version of Nehalem will be 8 cores on a single monolithic die in 2009.]

Pictured below is Glenn Hinton (Chief Nehalem Architect, Intel Fellow) along with CEO Paul Otellini demonstrating one of the first Nehalem processors that barely got "taped out" a month ago.  The PC booted Windows XP and played back an audio file with a synthetic computer voice saying "I am Nehalem, I am three weeks old".