Introduction: the state of play
01
After reviewing Intel's monster Core i7 processor in
November
2008, we commented that "If you're a power user who wants to
buy a new PC soon, look no further than Core i7. Intel had this market
sewn up some time ago but has just double-stitched it with the newest
processor in its arsenal. AMD's upcoming Deneb quad-core processor will
have to be stupidly good to beat out Core i7."
Intel appreciates the technical prowess of Core i7 and has been in no
hurry to launch derivations on the architecture. Instead, Core i7's
line-up has remained relatively unchanged since the launch, and the
only concession to the enthusiast has been a drop in the supporting X58
motherboard
and DDR3 prices. Core i7 920, a cheap X58 motherboard, and 6GB of DDR3
will still set you back some £430. AMD, whilst not offering
the
same performance, has a surfeit of options for significantly less money.
The chip giant could continue with the status quo, harvesting Core 2
Quad as the mid-range solution, left to compete against AMD's best, and
Core i7 as high-end, but that would
mean losing out on chipset revenue emanating from the introduction of
new CPUs. Through a series of managed announcements, Intel has
delineated plans for
its
CPU line-up
into 2010, and it's no surprise that the underlying Nehalem
architecture will be pared-down, just a touch, and bring with it a
range of new Intel 5-series chipsets - P55, P57, H55, H57, Q57. etc.
Intel knows that to market cheaper Nehalem chips it needs to remove
some of the features on the current range of Core i7. So out goes the
QPI
chip-to-motherboard interconnect, to be replaced by DMI. Triple-channel
memory is ousted in favour of dual-channel, and HyperThreading support
will be missing on some lower-end chips.
The end result of this tinkering is the need for a different chip
socket - and, by association, a raft of new motherboards -
that require fewer contact pads than incumbent Core i7. For example,
removing
a memory channel scrubs the need for mapping those pads from the IMC to
the chip, resulting in a different package.
There are also other important ramifications for motherboards based on
the new chips. The LGA1156 CPUs have built-in PCIe connectivity,
totalling 16 lanes that can be split into two x8 for multi-GPU usage.
Knowing this, LGA1156-based can remove some of the circuitry and,
importantly, reduce the cost of the board when compared with two-chip
LGA1366 (X58).
ASUS, the world's largest motherboard manufacturer, is only too happy
for Intel to bring new core logic for H2 2009, so much so that it
dropped off the P7P55D EVO - a P55-based board that'll run LGA1156
chips, currently known as Lynnfield or Core i5. We take a first look.
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