Intel has started shipping the new Nehalem architecture based Core i7 Processors, which they announced in August of this year. Nehalem is the seventh major x86 architecture and is designed explicitly for multi-core processor architecture. Intel claims that the new processors will see significant increase in memory efficiency and overall performance, as Intel has dropped the front side bus system in favor of new QuickPath Interconnect system, which uses point-to-point link between the processor and peripherals. Intel has also moved the memory controller on to the processor die reducing the lag and increasing the memory bandwidth.
The other features that Intel has added to the new processors are Hyperthreading and Turbo Mode. In Turbo Mode the processor can disable as many as three cores and overclock the remaining cores for apps that are designed to work on one or two cores. Hyperthreading returns to Core i7 processors allowing each core to run two program threads at once. Because of the faster memory controllers, Intel is decreasing L2 cache to 256KB per core and L3 cache to 8MB for the processor.
Intel started shipping three new desktop quad core processors 2.66GHz Core i7-920, 2.93GHz Core i7-940 and 3.2GHz Core i7-965 Extreme Edition. The prices for the three processors will be about $319, $599 and $1069 respectively. The Core i7 processors will also need new LGA 1366 socket and X58 mainboard chipset to work, as they are not compatible with previous generation chipsets. The new chipsets will increase the memory bandwidth to 24GB per second and support two full PCI Express X16 video cards for CrossFire or SLI modes. Newegg has all the three processors available on their website.