Intel has rolled out the first iterations of its highly anticipated Core i7 processor. Available at prices starting at $284, the new chips for desktop PCs sport new technologies to boost performance on demand while maximizing data throughput.
“Intel has delivered the fastest desktop processor on Earth to the most demanding users on Earth, the ones who are using their PCs for video, gaming and music,” said Intel Senior Vice President Patrick Gelsinger. “When you couple what is Intel’s biggest leap in chip design with other incredible innovations like Intel’s solid-state drives, the Core i7 processor has redefined the computer of tomorrow.”
Core Power-Down
Sporting 731 million transistors and four cores, the new processor features an 8MB, Level 3 cache and three channels of DDR3 1066 memory. The Core i7 is specifically designed to speed multimedia tasks such as video editing and immersive 3-D gaming by up to 40 percent, Intel said.
The turbo-boost technology in the new chips automatically adjusts the clock speed of one or more of the four processing cores for running single- and multi-threaded applications without demanding a comparable boost in power consumption. Desktop PCs running the new chip can now enter into power-saving sleep states formerly reserved for Intel-based notebooks.
The Core i7 also integrates a sophisticated on-die power control unit that functions in tandem with power-gate transistors placed between each core and the power supply that feeds it. The transistors function as integrated switches to bring the power consumption of each core down to zero when not in use.
Intel’s Hyper-Threading Technology enables multiple computing threads to run simultaneously, effectively enabling each processor core to perform two tasks at once. What’s more, new quickpath technology assigns an integrated memory controller and high-speed interconnect to each processor core so that the available interconnect bandwidth can be dynamically…