The picture of the Nehalem processor is getting clearer. On Tuesday at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel Senior Vice President Pat Gelsinger described a new “turbo mode” that pushes the 45-nanometer Nehalem into a higher gear without heat consequences.

The Nehalem series aims to increase energy efficiency and processing performance while plus improving hyperthreading and memory bandwidth.

In Intel’s “tick-tock” strategy, smaller processors and revamped manufacturing alternate years with new processor architectures, and Nehalem fits into the processor-architecture part of the road map.

‘Power Gating’ Technology

Gelsinger, in his keynote address, said a new “power gating” technology will be introduced with Nehalem. Although Intel chips can cut off potential to an unused core, the core sometimes leaks potential in sleep mode. The new technology has a transistor design that allows ability to be more completely cut off when not needed.

The ability gate includes on-chip sensors and a power-control unit. that means not only can

capability be turned off when a unit is idle, but it can additionally direct more potential to active cores. Gelsinger told news media that that turbo mode offers greater capabilities, particularly in environments where heat is a factor.

The new microarchitecture plus features QuickPath Interconnect to join processors, chipsets and memory in a way that provides up to three times the memory bandwidth of earlier Intel microarchitectures.

Larrabee’s ‘Many Core’ Architecture

These technologies, according to Gelsinger, help improve laptop battery life and can help details centers realize significant capability savings.

As the number of cores in processors increases — and Intel’s upcoming Larrabee “many core” architecture could involve arrays of hundreds or even thousands — ability control becomes critical for energy costs, battery life, and heat dissipation.

The first Nehalem-based processors are expected to be manufactured in the fourth quarter. Last week, Intel said its first desktop processors based on the Nehalem…

Original post by dhiram