Intel quad core processors set for November release

Computers running Intel’s next generation quad core processors will be available from November, initially targeting gamers and enthusiasts. 

Around 13 PC manufactures have said they will have systems available once the CPU ships, including Dell, Gateway and Alienware. The first quad core CPUs will be part of the Extreme family and called QX6700. It joins the recently released Core 2 Extreme – the X6800.

A mainstream version will follow in early 2007, once price points have begun to drop, called the Core 2 Quad.

Giving his keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Paul Otellini, president and CEO, said the Extreme version of the Quad Core CPU will be 70 per cent faster than the current Core 2 Extreme.

Intel’s quad core CPUs were originally expected to be released early next year, but it pushed the release date forward. Last week, rival AMD outlined its plans for quad core Opteron processors. 

The processors are a multichip package, so have been designed as two CPUs on a single die, each being dual core, to give the processor its four cores. Each CPU has 4MB of cache, giving it a total of 8MB. They have a shared Front Side Bus.

With the quad core CPUs, Intel continues to push its energy efficient computing message. But the quad Extreme runs at 130w, the mainstream version at 100w. Intel said it can reduce this, but believes high end users will want the performance, not energy savings.

Future generations, Intel said, will move towards the 80w and 65w of Core 2 Extreme and Duo processors. They run in existing Conroe motherboards, although these may need a Bios update.

Otellini argued that users will not care that Intel has chosen the multichip design, rather than a single CPU with four cores, because they are interested in performance.

Steve Smith, vice president, director desktop platform operations, added: “We’re doing it this way because we have the infrastructure in place and gives us a faster time to market.”

Initially, the processors will be manufactured using a 65nm die, but that will shrink to 45nm next year. Intel is spending $9bn building three fabrication plants in the US and Israel to build the new processors.

Fab D1D in Oregon is already producing test runs of the 45nm wafers, with production wafers expected in the second half of next year, as will the second US based fab. The one in Israel will not produce CPUs until 2008.

Otellini said 45nm processors will deliver an additional 20 per cent performance boost and a five fold reduction in silicon leakage.

Looking further forwards, Intel expects to release 32nm processors in 2009, and will also update its core microarchitecture, introduced earlier this year. The dual and quad core CPUs use this core microarchitecture, and in 2008 it will bring out what is currently codenamed Nehalem.

In 2010, this will be updated with Gesher, and these updates will bring about 300 per cent per watt increase in performance.