Intel preps launch for latest power-optimized chip family

Just what I need, a breath of fresh air on the tech news front. With a matter of weeks until we start the last year of this decade (egad, how did THAT happen), Intel plans to spice things up by finally shipping its next-generation desktop microprocessor, which it has been developing under the code name Nehalem. And the reason I'm writing about it here is because the technology, which will be expressed first in the Intel Core i7 processor line reportedly set to launch on Nov. 17, is the first generation to feature some of the company's latest thinking when it comes to energy efficiency.

According to a presentation the company gave a couple weeks back, the Nehalem platform has been designed to offer power management at every level of the microprocessor: in the CPU cores, in what it calls the “uncore” components including L3 Cache and Integrated Memory Controller, and the rest of the platform including DRAM.

A couple of the relevant innovations include: - The Intel Hyper-Threading technology, which can run two threads at the same time per each core. - A power control unit with real-time sensors for temperature, power consumption measurement, and so on. - Integrated power gate transistors that wind down cores to a zero power consumption statement when they are idle. Plus similar power reduction features that are applied to idle logic and cache. - Turbo Boost, which helps the cores achieve maximum potential performance within constrained form factors. - 45-nanometer High K Metal Gate Transistors, which not only are more environmentally friendly but that also cut back on power leakage and run at a lower switching power consumption level.

For more on the impending introduction, see this story.

What will make this introduction even more fun is that Advanced Micro Devices is also reportedly set to announce its follow-up to Barcelona, codenamed Shanghai.

Whether either company can translate their latest generation of high-performance, power-optimized chips into success launches in the current economic environment is anyone's guess. But the introductions are bound to spark more one-up-manship on the green desktop front come early next year.