Intel names its next chip baby: Core i7

Computerworld - Teasing news slated to come out of next week's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel Corp. today officially named its next family of desktop processors Intel Core.

The Core chips, code-named Nehalem, are slated to go into production in the fourth quarter of this year, according to George Alfs, an Intel spokesman.

The first Core chips to hit the market will get the added label of i7, making the full name Intel Core i7. The first members of the Core chip family are geared toward the high-end desktop market, added Alfs.

The Core processor family is based on a new microarchitecture designed for energy efficiency, Alfs said. Intel will provide some details on the efficiency and performance of the chips at the IDF, he added.

"The Core name is and will be our flagship PC processor brand going forward," said Sean Maloney, an Intel executive vice president and general manager, in a statement. "Expect Intel to focus even more marketing resources around that name and the Core i7 products starting now."

The Nehalem technology is a 45-nanometer, four-core processor. The chips include an integrated memory controller, eliminating the need for a front-side bus. The new architecture is modular, which officials say will make it easier to scale from two to eight cores.

The Core chips also are being designed to have two-way, simultaneous multithreading, use Intel's QuickPath interconnect, and have a three-level cache hierarchy.

Future versions of the chip family are expected to yield server and mobile chips.