Nehalem - Core i7

Intel unveiled the Brand of new processors Nehalem : successor of Core 2 Duo Series coming in end of this year!!

Generations :

• 1st gen architecture = 8086
• 2nd gen architecture = 286
• 3rd gen architecture = 386
• 4th gen architecture = 486
• 5th gen architecture = P5 (Pentium)
• 6th gen architecture = P6-based (Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium-M, Core, Core 2)
• (6th gen branched to “P68″ aka Pentium IV)
• 7th gen architecture = i7 Nehalem

At this time, Intel provides no guidance what i7 means, how i7 will evolve over time. Our first impression is that i7 much more technical name than Core 2 Duo. But we have no idea if that will be the general impression of the market and if it was Intel’s intention to come up a cold and very technical name. However, we do are quite sure that this new processor will create even more confusion for average PC buyers.

Info from whoisabhi.com

New cell phone memory from Intel

Intel on Thursday began shipping its next-generation flash memory for cell phones that support cameras, color screen, Web browsing & videos. The component, called StrataFlash Cellular Memory (M18), can operate at speeds of up to 133MHz, the company said. The NOR-based memory supports 3 megapixel cameras and MPEG4 video and was produced using 90-nanometer process technology. NOR Flash is used for code storage in applications, most notably cell phones & networking equipments.

For developers, Intel released royalty-free software with three new features: mountable USB, multivolume support and RAM buffer support. Currently, eight handset makers including NEC and Sony Ericsson use Intel flash memory in their devices.

Server chip sales

Although server processors represent a small portion of Intel's shipments, the company makes more money on the sale of a server chip than on other processors. The company's struggles to get its Itanium server processor off the ground have been well documented, but Intel is also having competitive problems in this market.

The Opteron chip has lifted AMD's share of the x86 server processor market from virtually zero a few years ago to 14.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2005, according to IDC. Several high-end customers have installed Opteron servers, and the latest is Google, according to Mark Edelstone at Morgan Stanley. Almost all of that came at Intel's expense.

"Intel has never really had to deal with a competitor in the x86 space that had its act together," said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64. "But how much of the problem is due to AMD's competitiveness, and how much is due to internal factors like chipsets and inventories?"

Intel has struggled to manage capacity over the last few years, as it has switched to new manufacturing technology. For example, stronger-than-expected demand for PCs last year forced it to stop making chipsets for low-end desktop processors, so it could concentrate on fulfilling all of its processor commitments. That left the door open for AMD to nab market share in desktop PCs. Desktop sales are only growing slowly worldwide, but still represent a large segment of Intel's revenue.

Strike three for Intel

Intel warned on Friday that its revenue for the first quarter would come in at between $8.7 billion and $9.1 billion, roughly $500 million lower than estimates the company issued The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker cited a weak market and a "slight" market share loss.

Analysts generally agree about the market, but are putting more emphasis on the loss of share. Some have pointed to the momentum shown by AMD, which has been far more aggressive over the past 18 months. The rival chipmaker has been strengthening its ties to PC makers, most prominently with Hewlett-Packard, and keeping prices low.

"They have been very aggressive about getting share and getting shelf space. We haven't seen a lot from Intel," NPD Techworld analyst Steve Baker said.

AMD's surge can be seen most strongly in the U.S. retail market, which accounts for about 9 percent of global PC shipments. In the first seven weeks of 2006, AMD's share in desktops in that area climbed to 81.5 percent, while Intel's has slid to 18.5 percent, Baker said. That's almost a complete reversal of their typical relative positions.

The winner is...

AMD

It wasn't even close.

After reading the round-by-round account of our dual-core desktop CPU prizefight, it should come as no shock that AMD's Athlon 64 X2 chips are the runaway victors here, laying out the Intel Pentium D and Pentium Extreme Edition 840 chips pins up. If we had to call out one chip, AMD's Athlon 64 X2 4400+ is an outstanding bargain given the competition, but as our results show, any AMD dual-core CPU will serve you better than its similarly priced Intel equivalent.

If you're wondering why there's such a striking performance difference between the two companies' processors, it likely has something to do with the memory controller. Among the technological differences between the two, AMD's memory controller--the component that sends information back and forth between your system's CPU and the memory--is an integrated part of the Athlon 64 X2's chip architecture. Intel's memory controller, however, exists as a separate piece of silicon on the motherboard. The additional distance between the CPU and the memory controller adds to the processing lag time and likely plays a part in Intel's lower scores.

Whatever Intel's strategy, it doesn't seem to have held up. We're very interested to see what happens when the next generation of chips and chipsets hits the market starting in January. But until then, AMD's Athlon 64 X2 should be your dual-core processor of choice.

Find out more about how we test desktop systems.

Intel test bed
Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard; Nvidia Nforce 4 SLI chipset; Crucial,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX (PCIe); WDC WD740GD-00FLA2 74GB 10,000rpm SATA; Windows XP Professional SP2; Antec 550w power supply

AMD test bed
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard; Nvidia Nforce 4 SLI chipset; Crucial,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX (PCIe); WDC WD740GD-00FLA2 74GB 10,000rpm SATA; Windows XP Professional SP2; Antec 550w power supply

CNET Labs project leader David Gussman constructed the test beds and performed all testing.