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Details of New Intel Dunnington and Nehalem Architectures Leaked
Daily Tech is reporting that details about Intel's new processor models were leaked over the weekend. Both the six core Dunnington and Nehalem architectures were featured in this leak. "Dunnington includes 16MB of L3 cache shared by all six processors. Each pair of cores can also access 3MB of local L2 cache. The end result is a design very similar to the AMD Barcelona quad-core processor; however, each Barcelona core contains 512KB L2 cache, whereas Dunnington cores share L2 cache in pairs. [...] Nehalem is everything Penryn is -- 45nm, SSE4, quad-core -- and then some. For starters, Intel will abandon the front-side bus model in favor of QuickPath Interconnect; a serial bus similar to HyperTransport."
This is gonna be sweet inside a MacPro! 12 cores, wow!
I love how they intimate that their 3Mb L2 Cache is somehow better than the 512Mb Cache in the Barcelona. It very well may be better in their particular CPU, but functionality wise the two products may perform similarly.
The AMD HT transport product has also been on the market for years, and in real computing (non desktop) applications has serious advantages over the Core2 and other Intel CPUs. Intel's solution/redesign for a similar feature isn't even on the market yet, while AMD's is a mature product.
I also like how they talk up power consumption on their CPUs, while leaving out the 100W hair dryer that is typically their memory controller, whereas the AMD memory controller is included in the CPU and in their CPU wattage.
The only way to test these things is at the wall socket, complete systems.
When can we expect this new architecture? 2011? Ok, maybe I can deal with that.
What will I need to upgrade? A new motherboard, since surely the northbridge-less model will not appreciate the northbridge currently present. Ok, a new morbo is like, 90 euros, I can handle that.
Can I upgrade the motherboard only, so that I could use my old Core2 chip in it? No, there's no northbridge. And the socket is likely incompatible since the processor is now directly connected (well with some mild glue for voltages etc.) to the memory chips. Guess I'll have to suck it up.
With a new motherboard comes new memory modules. Let's be realistic and assume that the minimum amount of memory in a new computer in 2011 is going to be at least 4 gigabytes. Anyway, regardless of the year, a new computer's new memory modules cost some 200 euros total.
This is starting to look kind of expensive! Guess I salivated early. I suppose my next upgrade will be to an AM3 motherboard and then to a Barcelona chip. I mean, those are here this year, not in three years, right?
Jeez, Intel, please provide something more quickly than just promises of Nehalem (I mean, we've been hearing about it for _years_ now) and son-of-Nehalem. Pony the fuck up! I mean, at least AMD's got _something_ out besides vapour.