Only it’s not the Turbo Mode of the early 90s. Intel sheds new light on its Core (Nehalem) CPU, including excessive use of the word “turbo”.
As we reported earlier this week, Nehalem, or Core i7 as the first processor will be known, is Intel’s new desktop CPU, and will include something called “Turbo Mode”.
While it sounds like the old turbo button (remember those?), Intel is not bringing back PCs with turbo enhanced front switches on the case. Turbo Mode is in fact a more fundamental chip-level method of gaining extra performance.
Intel has devised a way to “turn off” the i7’s multiple Cores when not in use. If only two of four cores are active, power to the other two non-active cores goes off.
Turbo Mode is interesting because it shows why power saving chip design, being pushed so heavily in laptops, can actually benefit raw performance too.
Intel unveiled more detail on Nehalem today, including:
Lots of codenames – Havendale, Lynfield, Auburndale, Clarksfield All you need to know is these are desktop and mobile versions of Nehalem, and they’ll appear in the second half of 2009.
Core i7 first to arrive – one of the first i7 CPUs to appear will reportedly be a 3.2GHz chip, under Intel’s new Extreme Edition Core logo.
Turbo Mode – as above, a new way to make better use of multiple cores.
Power Control Unit – Core machines will have a power control unit, that shifts control from hardware to embedded firmware.
William Maher is reporting from San Francisco this week at the Intel Developer Forum.
Follow our Intel IDF 2008 coverage:
- IDF: Spot the Eee PC
- IDF: “Turbo mode” is back for PCs- Intel claims 5-year life for SSD
- IDF: The "Intel iPhone" not such a crazy idea
- Intel IDF: Spotted, a Centrino 2 desktop
- Intel promises “screaming performance” for Core i7- Live from Intel IDF - Atom, Centrino 2, Larrabee