Quote:
Date: March 28th, 2007
Topic: CPU & Chipset
Manufacturer: Intel
Author: Johan De Gelas
Nehalem Micro Architecture: Intel Embraces the IMC and IGP
Surprisingly, Intel gave away quite a few details about Nehalem. Although Nehalem is still based on the 4-issue Core architecture, it takes "multithreading" to a whole new level. First of all, Nehalem can contain up to eight cores per die. Combined with 2-way Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT or Hyper-Threading), you'll have the ability to execute up to 16 threads on one chip!
Nehalem will also use multi-level shared cache. Pat Gelsinger indicated that only the highest level of cache would be shared, meaning that Nehalem could very well have a similar cache hierarchy to AMD's Barcelona (independent L1/L2 caches per core, but a shared L3 cache). The power of each core is "dynamically managed" which might indicate that Nehalem goes one step further than AMD's Barcelona core: it could have independent power planes.
Nehalem will no longer use a FSB but a serial point to point interconnect. Even more revolutionary is the fact that Nehalem will have an integrated memory controller (IMC) and that the number of serial interconnects is variable (Intel's version of "HyperTransport"). Another potentially groundbreaking move is that some Nehalem CPUs will have a GPU integrated (Intel's version of "Fusion"). With an integrated memory controller, new interconnect, and potentially integrated graphics, Nehalem will obviously require a new socket.