Intel Nehalem Processor Details Leaked

MacRumors · Feb 25, 2008, 03:43 PM

DailyTech provides screenshots from Intel slides detailing their upcoming Dunnington and Nehalem architectures.

First, the slides detail Dunnington, a 45nm six-core (three dual-cores) Xeon processor and successor to Tigerton. The Tigerton procesors were launched in September of 2007 and are aimed at very high end servers. Apple has not yet adopted these processors in either its Mac Pro or Xserve line.

More interesting are details of Intel's Nehalem processors which will be the successor to Penryn. While Nehalem is also a 45nm, SSE4, quad-core chip, it will introduce a number of other new technologies. In Nehalem, Intel will replace the front-side bus model with "QuickPath Interconnect" (similar to Hypertransport), add on-die memory controllers, and tri-channel DDR3. All these changes will reportedly increase the available bandwidth to the processor, allowing it to interact with the computer at faster speeds.

Longer is faster, X5482 is Harpertown processor found in Mac Pro

Based on early estimates, the Nehalem processor is expected to benchmark 144-203% faster than existing Harpertown Xeon processors (X5482).

Quote:

The Nehalem processor more than doubles the floating point performance of its current Penryn-family processors. Ou adds, "We’ll most likely know by the end of this year what the actual scores are, but I doubt they will be more than 5% to 10% off from these estimated projections."

The first Nehalem processors are not expected to be launched until Q4 2008.

Article Link

powermac_daddy · Feb 25, 2008, 03:45 PM

I love this

7even · Feb 25, 2008, 03:46 PM

Wow. Maybe I'll actually upgrade my desktop when those come out.

macintel4me · Feb 25, 2008, 03:47 PM

Wow! That's first the first MAJOR performance gain and not just performance/watt gain have seen from Intel in awhile. Cheers!!

MacsRgr8 · Feb 25, 2008, 03:49 PM

Wow.... gr8!

Interesting thing about Intel and its roadmap.... far more "educated guessing" about future Macs.

OTOH...
Boring thing about Intel and its roadmap.... far more "educated guessing" about future Macs than rumors and speculation.

killmoms · Feb 25, 2008, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacsRgr8

Wow.... gr8!

Interesting thing about Intel and its roadmap.... far more "educated guessing" about future Macs.

OTOH...
Boring thing about Intel and its roadmap.... far more "educated guessing" about future Macs than rumors and speculation.

To be fair, it means a lot less "Motorola/IBM processor divination" threads (will we ever get a faster chip?!) and a lot more "When the hell are we getting the new Intel chips in updated Macs OMGOMGOMG?!" threads.

You decide which is better.

MacsRgr8 · Feb 25, 2008, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacRumors

The first Nehalem processors are not expected to be launched until Q4 2008.

WWDC '09....
Intro of these babies in the Mac Pro, if it also gets a facelift.

zapp · Feb 25, 2008, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacsRgr8

WWDC '09....
Intro of these babies in the Mac Pro, if it also gets a facelift.

And I just bought my first desktop a mac pro 2.8 octo

JonasLondon · Feb 25, 2008, 03:52 PM

8-cores w 8 GB RAM and 512 MB Graphics card just got to be fast enough for a while dammit. :-)

MacsRgr8 · Feb 25, 2008, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by killmoms

To be fair, it means a lot less "Motorola/IBM processor divination" threads (will we ever get a faster chip?!) and a lot more "When the hell are we getting the new Intel chips in updated Macs OMGOMGOMG?!" threads.

You decide which is better.

Yep. Or will we ever get the G* {censored} in a PowerBook...?

(sorry)

Less fun, but far better. It is much easier this way to plan ahead.

Cromulent · Feb 25, 2008, 03:53 PM

I'll be looking forward to these coming out that is for sure

.

JonasLondon · Feb 25, 2008, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zapp

And I just bought my first desktop a mac pro 2.8 octo

Congratulations, you'll have a lot of fun with it until this new beast becomes available and you can always switch just when the new one comes out.

I've got the same machine on order. It will be a blazing machine compared to my Dual 1.8 GHz PowerMac, that's a safe bet!

MacsRgr8 · Feb 25, 2008, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zapp

And I just bought my first desktop a mac pro 2.8 octo

I just upgraded my Quad G5 to the Octo 2.8 with GeForce 8800 GT.
Don't worry, this Mac will stay the fastest Mac for at least 12 months (maybe even to summer '09), judging past upgrades...

TMay · Feb 25, 2008, 03:55 PM

Not explicitly stated, but am I to assume that both Dunningham and Nethalem support multiprocessor configurations?

Cromulent · Feb 25, 2008, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMay

Not explicitly stated, but am I to assume that both Dunningham and Nethalem support multiprocessor configurations?

Yes. It was explicitly stated as they said they were the successor to already existing multiprocessor CPUs.

twoodcc · Feb 25, 2008, 03:58 PM

wow. now that's something to look forward to!

zdobson · Feb 25, 2008, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zapp

And I just bought my first desktop a mac pro 2.8 octo

I wouldn't worry too much. Seems like they won't be available until mid '09.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but won't it take some time for software to be available to make full use of the new architecture's capabilities? I mean, quad core chips have been around about a year (?) and not all pro software (i.e. Photoshop) makes use of all cores yet.

MacsRgr8 · 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zdobson

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but won't it take some time for software to be available to make full use of the new architecture's capabilities? I mean, quad core chips have been around about a year (?) and not all pro software (i.e. Photoshop) makes use of all cores yet.

I depends how you use your computer.
Sometimes you use batches of multiple Photoshop actions which can use a couple of Cores at a time.

Simple (non-PS) example:
Take one QuickTime movie. Convert it to iPhone format: you will notice 2 Cores in use.
Now start a second QuickTime movie and do the same thing at the same time: Two Cores are used twice, i.e. 4 Cores used at once... and so on.

Or you can have one app use 4 Cores, while another app uses 2 Cores, and you still can iChat too.

EDIT:

Example of CPU time and CPU monitor when converting 2 QuickTime movies:

ksz · Feb 25, 2008, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zapp

And I just bought my first desktop a mac pro 2.8 octo

Me too, and I'm more than happy with it. Definitely not enlisting in the Wait for Eternity, er, oops, I mean Nehalem camp.

sblasl · Feb 25, 2008, 04:07 PM

Glad I sat out the most recent "speed bump" upgrade to the Mac Pro. This Nehalem upgrade will be worthy of the wait. It will also have a significant negative impact on the resale value on the current Mac Pros when the Nehalem Mac Pros are released.

Macmaniac · Feb 25, 2008, 04:10 PM

Que the I am waiting for the Nehalem processor threads..... oh wait... we already have one...

RHD · Feb 25, 2008, 04:12 PM

Wow!
That's amazing!
I love technology!

abiyng87 · Feb 25, 2008, 04:19 PM

As a dorky tech student with a dorky tech student fiance, we are both giddy as school girls over Nehalem.

cohibadad · Feb 25, 2008, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacRumors

Based on early estimates, the Nehalem processor is expected to benchmark 144-203% faster than existing Harpertown Xeon processors (X5482).

I think this should read 44-103% faster or benchmark at 144-203% of X5482. The chart does not show 144-203% faster.

kornyboy · Feb 25, 2008, 04:23 PM

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

This will make for a nice Mac Pro!

Feb 25, 2008, 03:47 PM	#4
macintel4me macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jan 2006	Wow! That's first the first MAJOR performance gain and not just performance/watt gain have seen from Intel in awhile. Cheers!! __________________ My iPhone 3.0 games:Mancala: FS5, Tic-Tac-Touch

Feb 25, 2008, 03:49 PM	#5
MacsRgr8 macrumors 601 Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: The Netherlands	Wow.... gr8! Interesting thing about Intel and its roadmap.... far more "educated guessing" about future Macs. OTOH... Boring thing about Intel and its roadmap.... far more "educated guessing" about future Macs than rumors and speculation. __________________ Drag and Drop for Windows users: DRAG your peecee off your desk, and DROP it in the trash.

Feb 25, 2008, 03:52 PM	#9
JonasLondon macrumors regular Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: London	Oh well, still getting my Mac Pro in a few weeks :-) 8-cores w 8 GB RAM and 512 MB Graphics card just got to be fast enough for a while dammit. :-)

Feb 25, 2008, 03:53 PM	#11
Cromulent macrumors 68040 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: The British Empire	I'll be looking forward to these coming out that is for sure . __________________ Neural Advance - Mac OS X, UNIX and Windows Development Extreme Metal Reviews MP 4x 2.66Ghz Xeons / 2GB RAM / 250GB + 500GB + 750GB + 1TB HDDs / Nvidia 8800GT 512MB

Feb 25, 2008, 03:58 PM	#16
twoodcc macrumors 603 Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Right side of wrong	wow. now that's something to look forward to! __________________ tville pump Smarter than the average bear

Feb 25, 2008, 03:45 PM	#2
powermac_daddy Banned Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Philadelphia & Northern California	I love this

Feb 25, 2008, 03:46 PM	#3
7even macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jan 2008	Wow. Maybe I'll actually upgrade my desktop when those come out.

Feb 25, 2008, 03:55 PM	#14
TMay macrumors 6502 Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Carson City, NV	Not explicitly stated, but am I to assume that both Dunningham and Nethalem support multiprocessor configurations?

Feb 25, 2008, 04:07 PM	#20
sblasl macrumors 6502a Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Heber Springs, AR	Glad I sat out the most recent "speed bump" upgrade to the Mac Pro. This Nehalem upgrade will be worthy of the wait. It will also have a significant negative impact on the resale value on the current Mac Pros when the Nehalem Mac Pros are released. __________________ Pardon Multimedia - please give MM another chance!

Feb 25, 2008, 04:10 PM	#21
Macmaniac macrumors 68040 Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: A tiny spec in the "Garden State", 1 square mile in area, somewhere on the outskirts of town by the railroad tracks	Que the I am waiting for the Nehalem processor threads..... oh wait... we already have one... __________________ The customer is NOT always right

Feb 25, 2008, 04:12 PM	#22
RHD macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: London	Wow! That's amazing! I love technology! __________________ TiBook G4 15" 1 GHz and 17", 2.6 ghz MBP with State Of The Art Last Year but now stone dead nVidea card. Otherwise now known as the Drinks Tray. RIP MacBook Pro and may Nvidia go broke.

Feb 25, 2008, 04:19 PM	#23
abiyng87 macrumors Demi-Goddess Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Hermosa Beach, CA	As a dorky tech student with a dorky tech student fiance, we are both giddy as school girls over Nehalem. __________________ Abbie Twitter Facebook MRoogle Don't go messing up my view of the world with your facts.

Feb 25, 2008, 04:23 PM	#25
kornyboy macrumors 6502a Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Knoxville, TN (USA)	Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3) This will make for a nice Mac Pro! __________________ Stuff

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