Intel Nehalem Working at 3.2GHz Pictured

[Kasparz]

I promissed more details on Intel Nehalem yesterday, and now it is time to keep my word. During the first day of Spring IDF 2008, the guys over at HEXUS.net have pictured the first working sample of a quad-core Intel Nehalem processor operating at 3.2GHz (revision A1). The 1366-pin, 731M-transistor 45nm native quad-core model, utilizes 256KB of L2 cache for each core, as well as 8MB of L3 cache. The CPU also integrates triple-channel DDR3-1333MHz memory controller and SSE4 instructions. Like the new 533MHz Silverthorne-based Atom processors, Nehalem will also incorporate Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) which is also known as Hyper-Threading (HT). Each physical core in a single Nehalem processor is paired up with its own virtual core. As a result, the quad-core processor will be detected to have eight cores (on the picture). Predictions say that this new architecture will offer around 30% better performance, on a clock-for-clock basis, when compared to Core 2, in a heavily-multithreaded environment - HPC and low-end servers, mainly. Current Intel roadmaps list the Nehalem launch date for Q4 2008, with a simulteanous rollout across servers and desktops.

Source Hexus.net, DailyTech

[Donnie27]

Source Hexus.net, DailyTech

Da-aamm!

[Omastar]

So, is SMT going to be a much more elegant solution than HT, which only helped in a handful of multithreaded instances? I assume so.

[Hornet331]

So, is SMT going to be a much more elegant solution than HT, which only helped in a handful of multithreaded instances? I assume so.

HT is/was SMT from the beginning.

But in theory in nehalem HT should be a bit more effizient then in Northwood/Prescott, mainly due to the "wider architecture" (4 instructions per cycle instead of 3)

[Origin_Unknown]

HT is still a fake trick imho....

flame me all you like

[naokaji]

pure pr0n....

[xlink]

So, is SMT going to be a much more elegant solution than HT, which only helped in a handful of multithreaded instances? I assume so.

it should be, netburst wasn't exactly a wide uarch so it wasn't that good of a thin for it. nehalem SHOULD be a lot wider

HT is still a fake trick imho....

flame me all you like

no, it's very valuable in the server industry, heck, it's even used in the xbox 360's xenos

[Zytek_Fan]

They better show a dual socket Nehalem system

[NH|Delph1]

Intel has been pretty clear on several occasions that this is not a return of HyperThreading, it's all new.
Still, many news sites continue to call it that.

//Andreas

[Syn.]

...own virtual core. As a result, the quad-core processor will be detected to have eight cores (on the picture). Predictions say that this new architecture will offer around 30% better performance, on a clock-for-clock basis, when compared to Core 2, in a heavily-multithreaded environment - HPC and low-end servers, mainly.

sure, but how long till we start getting heavily-multi-threaded environment's?

[Zytek_Fan]

sure, but how long till we start getting heavily-multi-threaded environment's?

It won't take long for that when Intel is pushing for multi threading.

[Movieman]

They better show a dual socket Nehalem system

Soon..

[Monkeywoman]

3 channel memory? i hope there is a 4 channel version. 3 doesn't sound even

[Zytek_Fan]

Soon..

Have extra pants at the ready!

[Aivas47a]

Benches, please!

[Movieman]

Have extra pants at the ready!

Already got them standing by!
8 cores at 4000mhz with HT2..

[NH|Delph1]

3 channel memory? i hope there is a 4 channel version. 3 doesn't sound even

Bloomfield has up to 3 channels, lower-end has two.

//Andreas

[jas420221]

sure, but how long till we start getting heavily-multi-threaded environment's?

Exactly.. What is single threaded performance like over C2D?

[G.Foyle]

HT is still a fake trick imho....

flame me all you like

It's a perfectly fair technique used to push average computational throughput closer to theoretical max. It's as fake as branch prediction, out of order execution etc.

And you even get some e-peen viagra for free, 2x more graphs in task manager.

[lv_88]

And it's running Maya! Should show this to my Visual Effects school,
this would be useful for us

[alfaunits]

30% in heavy multithreading over C2 doesn't sound that high... I expected something like that in single-thread and a LOT more in MT.

[Donnie27]

3 channel memory? i hope there is a 4 channel version. 3 doesn't sound even

It's even because each is 64bit and 192 is an even number

[STaRGaZeR]

I really hope this won't be like that demoed 3GHz Phenom...

And I'd like to know single-thread perfomance too.

[Donnie27]

sure, but how long till we start getting heavily-multi-threaded environment's?

We'll need it and 8GB of RAM to run Crysis 2 on Vista XE hehehe!

[xVeinx]

30% in heavy multithreading over C2 doesn't sound that high... I expected something like that in single-thread and a LOT more in MT.

From what i can tell, the largest change for nehalem is the FSB -> CSI change, with some tweaks to the core as well. So, it makes sense that the largest change will occur with MT over ST apps. Think of this as Intel's Phenom: a solid improvement over the past with a change in the socket/FSB architecture and minor tweaks to the actual cores to yield moderate gains on the past arch.