Intel has unveiled its fastest
laptop processor to date which will power its next generation of mainstream
laptops . The Core i7
processors are based on Nehalem microarchitecture and offer a number of improvements which will allow future
notebook,
netbook and
desktop PCs to outperform the current Core 2 laptop processors.
The Nehalem microarchitecture cuts bottlenecks to improve performance per watt and overall system speed. The new processors will also direct excess processing power to active cores rather than to dormant ones, with Turbo Boost technology enhancing chip speeds by up to 3.33GHz on high performance laptops.
Three Core i7 processors were unveiled on Wednesday, with the 2.0GHz Core i7 920XM the most powerful processor with up to 8MB of cache. The Core i7 820QM processor also has up to 8MB of cache, but will run at 1.73GHz, while the Core i7 720QM will run at 1.6GHz with 6MB of cache. The processors will cost $1,054, $546 and $364 respectively, in units of 1,000.
It will not only be high end
computers which benefit from the new processors.
Budget laptops, with simple
computing and
internet capabilities, will also boast faster and more power efficient chips.