Sighting - More Asus P6T Core i7 Motherboard Info

More information surfaced today about what will likely be the first available motherboard for the Core i7 platform... the Asus P6T Deluxe.

Here's the full article compliments of CustomPC...

The launch of Intel’s new Core i7 Nehalem processor might still be taunting us from the distance, but Asus has already unveiled its new Socket 1366 P6T Deluxe motherboard for the new CPUs, as well as a bunch of new graphics cards.

Among the P6T Deluxe's interesting new features is a handheld overclocking controller that allows you to overclock your CPU on the fly, even during benchmarks. The device will be available with high-end boards, but Asus also plans to make it available as an optional extra for other compatible motherboards too. While on the subject of overclocking, the board will also include Asus’ Turbo V software overclocking tool, which allows you to adjust the CPU multiplier without rebooting Windows.

As well as this, the P6T Deluxe also features Asus’ Express Gate SSD technology, which allows you to boot to an independent flash-based Linux OS instead of Windows. You will be able to upload Flash games to the onboard flash drive using a thumbdrive too. The P6T Deluxe also takes advantage of the Nehalem core’s triple-channel memory system, with a huge bank of six DIMM slots, and Asus has confirmed that the board will support both SLI and CrossFire multi-GPU technologies.

Asus has chosen an interesting route with the motherboard’s RAID controller too, integrating an SAS (serial attached SCSI) storage chip; a technology that’s usually only used in servers and workstations. In Asus’ own tests, a RAID 0 array of S-ATA drives managed an average read speed of 117MB/sec, but this increased to 179.2MB/sec when using an SAS RAID 0 array – SAS controllers are compatible with both S-ATA and SAS drives. However, unlike a separate SAS card, the board doesn’t have its own processor, so your CPU will bear some of the load. Even so, this is a feature that will be very interesting to test.

Click to enlarge images...







There are even more photos on PCGH. Including this one of the I/O...



Source

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News - IDF Core i7 Coverage

There's a good summary of Pat Gelsinger's IDF keynote with lots of teasers on Nehalem over on Techreport.com and AnandTech...

Turbo Mode and Power Management

Nehalem Turbo Mode (more details in this editorial)...

Nehalem Turbo mode brings power headroom back into performance. With two active cores, we turn off inactive cores and crank up the active ones dynamically for higher performance. Power control unit manages this.

AnandTech's coverage added this...

Power management on Nehalem will be better than today. Integrated Power Gate technology will take voltage down to zero rather than just decreasing power. Actually building a perfect silicon "power switch" was tough and required some new fabrication technology. The tech is pretty cool, each core can be shut off independently without resorting to multiple power planes. Each core gets its own PLL like Phenom, but there is some clever stuff going on here to make the implementation a bit more elegant.

Nehalem Performance

Nehalem demo of Lost Planet: Colonies. Yorkfield vs. Nehalem. Nehalem is over 50% faster thanks to eight cores, faster cores.

Now Cinebench with overclocked Nehalem and Yorkfiled. Over 30% faster on Nehalem. 45850 Cinebench R10 rendering score.

Why Gaming Performance Might Not Improve Significantly

In related news, AnandTech has posted a blog article outlining the true ambitions of Nehalem...

Nehalem is about improving HPC, Database and virtualization performance, much less about gaming performance. Maybe this will change once games get some heavy physics threads, but not right away.

Why? Most Games are about fast caches and super integer performance. After all, most of the Floating point action is already happening on the GPU. All Core 2 CPUs were a huge step forward in integer performance (not in the least because of memory disambiguation) compared to the CPUs of that time (P4 and K8). Nehalem is only a small step forward in integer performance. And the gains due to slightly increased integer performance are mostly negated by the new cache system. In a previous post I told you that most games really like the huge L2 of the Core family. With Nehalem they are getting a 32 KB L1 with a 4 cycle latency, next a very small (compared to the older Intel CPUs) 256 KB L2 cache with 12 cycle latency and after that a pretty slow 40 cycle 8 MB L3. When running on Penryn, they used to get a 3 cycle L1 and a 14 cycle 6144 KB L2. That is a 24 times larger L2 than Nehalem!

The percentage of L2 caches misses of most games running on a Penryn CPU is extremely low. Now that is going to change. The integrated memory controller of Nehalem can't help much, as the fact remains that the L3 is slow and the L2 is small.

But that doesn't mean Intel made a bad choice. Intel made a superbly good choice by improving the performance where Core (Merom/Penryn) was mediocre to good. Penryn was already a magnificent gaming CPU, but it could not beat the AMD competitor in HPC benchmarks. And AMD gave good resistance in the database performance benchmarks. That is all going to change.

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Benchmarks - Hexus.net benchmarks 2.93GHz Core i7 system at IDF

Hexus.net has a series of benchmarks from a 2.93GHz system they played with prior to the IDF kick-off tomorrow.

The benchmarks are very similar to others we've seen with performance depending on the particular application.

The Sysoft Sandra memory bandwidth test illustrates the benefits of the IMC nicely however...



They summarized their assessment rather aptly as follows...

Looking back through the numbers, the 2.93GHz Nehalem naturally comes into its own when the cores, be they physical or virtual, are pushed by the software. When this happens, it's up to 33 per cent faster than a 3.2GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770, and some 50 per cent quicker than an equivalently-clocked (Kentsfield-based) Core 2 Quad CPU.

Talking about the consumer space, Intel has enjoyed a performance lead over AMD for some time, and it's only going to continue, unabated, with the release of the Nehalem core. AMD's response will come in the form of a Phenom-upgraded processor, Shanghai, but it will need to be something special, really, really special, for it to effectively counter the Nehalem threat.

Knowing the likely pricing of initial Nehalem CPUs, the ramifications of the new architecture are more than just related to performance, however. AMD, it seems, will not be able to compete against the Nehalem's performance, even with Shanghai, and, so, the pricing of subsequent Phenoms will be indirectly set by Intel. We can't see a Phenom being sold for, say, $500 anytime soon; AMD doesn't have the necessary power to do so, unless it can pull a rabbit out of the silicon bag.

Bottom line: Nehalem's very real performance numbers put incumbent Core 2 Extreme in the shade and pose AMD some really tough headaches.

Source

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Sighting - Socket 1366 Heatsinks FAQ

FrostyTech Labs has got their hands on some early CPU coolers and posted some answers to commonly asked questions about Core i7's LGA-1366 socket...

Top Socket 1366 Nehalem CPU Heatsink Questions

1). Will current Intel socket 775 heatsinks fit on Intel socket 1366 motherboards?
Answer: No.

The reason is 'Nehalem' processors have somewhat different power specs, but more importantly the mounting pins which affix the heatsink to the motherboard are spaced further apart. For socket 1366 motherboards the holes are spaced 80mm apart, for socket 775 motherboard that distance was 72mm.

2). If I use a socket 775-to-1366 adaptor bracket to make my existing Intel heatsink fit onto a Socket 1366 motherboard, is that okay?
Answer: Maybe yes, probably not.

The integrated heatspreader on the socket 1366 Intel Nehalem processor is larger than the IHS on socket 775 CPUs (32x35mm vs. 28.5x28.5mm). That fact, coupled with the difference in heat output between each CPU generation means not every LGA775 heatsink is appropriate for use on a socket 1366 processor. However, some performance cooling manufacturers will have adaptor brackets for existing heatsinks so they can be used with socket 1366 motherboards.

3). Do Nehalem socket 1366 heatsinks use the plastic push pin clips, or something new?
Answer: Yes to both.

The socket 1366 heatsinks we've seen first hand use spring-tensioned machine screws to attach the heatsink to a metal backing plate. However, Intel's socket 1366 reference heatsinks (and retail heatsinks) use standard through-PCB plastic push-pin mounting brackets.

4). Is there an equivalent AMD-type heatsink retention cage for socket 1366 heatsinks?
Answer: No.

Socket 1366 heatsinks mount to the motherboard directly, either with the aid of a metal rear support plate or push pin clips that grab onto the motherboard.

Source

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Sighting - Asus P6T X58 Motherboard

Pictures of an Asus P6T X58 motherboard for Intel's newly branded Core i7 have surfaced...



Specs are quoted as...

• True 16 Phase Power (although possibly controlled as 8 phases)


• SAS Support for a pair of Serial-Attached-SCSI drives


• New DTS audio algorithms for improved home theater audio

Source

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News - Bloomfield Branded as Intel Core i7

One week ahead of IDF, Intel today confirmed rumors related to the branding of Nehalem's Bloomfield processors which will officially be referred to as "Intel Core i7 Processors". The official announcement from Intel reads as follows:

Next-Generation Intel PC Chips to Carry Intel Core Name

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 11, 2008 – Intel Corporation announced today that desktop processors based on the company's upcoming new microarchitecture (codenamed "Nehalem") will be formally branded "Intel® Core™ processor." The first products in this new family of processors, including an "Extreme Edition" version, will carry an "i7" identifier and will be formally branded as "Intel® Core™ i7 processor." This is the first of several new identifiers to come as different products launch over the next year.

Products based on the new microarchitecture will deliver high performance and energy efficiency. This "best of both worlds" approach is expected to extend Intel's processor leadership in future mobile, desktop and server market segments.

"The Core name is and will be our flagship PC processor brand going forward," said Sean Maloney, Intel Corporation executive vice president and general manager, Sales and Marketing Group. "Expect Intel to focus even more marketing resources around that name and the Core i7 products starting now."

Bill Calder had this to add on the official Intel Blog site...

The first products in this new family of processors, which will be in production in Q4 and feature a unique mix of performance and energy efficiency, will also carry a new identifier and be formally branded the Intel® Core™ i7 processor. Believe it or not, this new naming scheme should make it easier for PC buyers to decide which technology is right for them. The “i7” identifier is the first of several new identifiers to come as different Nehalem-based products launch over the next year.

So the Intel Core processor will become the foundation, the primary client brand going forward, with individual identifiers distinquishing different features and capabilities with the family of processors. Watch this space for more details.

There has been plenty of speculation in recent days as to the true nature of the "i7" brand and whether it somehow represents the 7th generation microarchitecture but this was dismissed by Bill Calder...

i7 does not have any special meaning per se (after all Nehalem is 4 cores and 8 threads!). So think of i7 as somewhat of a generic identifier for now (there will be other identifiers to come that will make it more clear). It is a way separating the new and improved high end desktop processor brand from other existing brands. It represents a collection of factors and highlights unique attributes of the particular product in the family of processors, including performance and other features.

Ultimately, I suspect we will see variants under the i8, i9, i6, and i5 labels.

The logos for the new brand are (dark for Extreme series i7 and blue for regular i7)

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Benchmarks - Bloomfield and Gainstown vs Penryn and Opterion

Thanks to Hornet331 over on Xtremesystems.org for investing significant effort in compiling some excellent graphs for a number of benchmarks provided by JC and others in the Bloomfield thread giving us these great comparisons... (click to enlarge)





I think Extelleron summarized this best with his comments:

You do realize what you are comparing here?

8 Barcelona cores @ ~2.4GHz vs. 4 Nehalem cores @ 2.93GHz.

8 Barcelona cores @ 2.4GHz under 64-bit (which improves performance by 15-20%) are losing to 4 Nehalem cores @ 2.93GHz under 32-bit.

Granted your numbers are a bit lower than they should be for a Barcelona system. If you read Anandtech's MP Barcelona review, Dual Opteron 8356 (2.3GHz) score 14,487, under 64-bit. Were Nehalem also in a 64-bit environment, that would mean that 4 Nehalem cores @ 2.93GHz would be a good 15% faster than 8 Barcelona cores @ 2.3GHz. Work that out and that means that 4 Nehalem cores are not that far behind clock/clock parity with 8 Barcelona cores.

If you look at the Gainestown DP results, they are just as impressive. With SMT enabled (full 16 threads, for some reason only 8 threads were run), Dual Gainestown @ 2.4GHz will effectively tie Quad AMD Opteron 8356 @ 2.3GHz in Cinebench 64-bit.

Now imagine the performance of Quad Beckton (32 cores, 64 threads, 24MB L3/CPU) and you know that AMD is in trouble.

Follow the discussion here (about mid-page).

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Rumor - Nehalem Launch in September

A report today from DigiTimes confirms an earlier than expected release of Nehalem...

Originally scheduled to launch in November or December this year, Intel's Nehalem-based Bloomfield processors will now launch in September along with X58 chipsets, sources at motherboard makers have revealed.

However, the sources pointed out that CPUs and motherboards will not officially appear in the channel until early October.

Since Bloomfield CPUs are not socket compatible with previous Intel platforms, the accelerated launch is not expected to cause competition between the company's own products, although the same cannot be said for AMD's scheduled AM3-based CPU launch, noted the sources.

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Rumors - The latest Bloomfield Details

Here are some of the latest Nehalem details that have been circulating recently...

Pricing:

HKEPC has posted what may be the launch pricing for the Nehalem CPU's.



Availability:

Bit-Tech and others have reported rumors of a week 40 or 44 release date which is either the week of Sept. 29th or the week of Oct. 27th.

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Rumor - SLI on Nehalem - What's the latest?

Several rumors are floating around with respect to NVIDIA's plans and options with respect to the upcoming Nehalem platform.

There are at least the following rumors circulating at the present time...

• NVIDIA will enable SLI on X58/Bloomfield boards by the addition of a BR-04 (NF200) PCIe switch/bridge chip. (Now officially confirmed by NVIDIA)
• NVIDIA has chosen to focus on Lynnfield and ignore Bloomfield. (Now officially debunked as per the above announcement.)
• NVIDIA has a Quickpath license thus enabling it to build a direct competitor to the X58/Tylersburg chipset (although it may choose not to use this).
  
  

Both the first and second option are illustrated architecturally below (click to enlarge)

Observations:

What's perhaps most interesting is that NVIDIA may end-up supporting SLI on Intel boards with the NF200 PCIe bridge/switch for Bloomfield and possibly Lynnfield without ever actually developing a chipset for this architecture. This may be a very good thing for all concerned. While NVIDIA makes excellent graphic cards, their chipsets on Intel platforms have always been riddled with issues. Gaming or 3D benching enthusiasts who want both SLI and the stability or reduced hassle of an Intel chipset may actually be getting what they want.

NVIDIA will still make decent money from "enabling" SLI motherboards as they are rumored to be pricing the NF200 chips at a lofty $30 price point. Keep in mind that a full-fledged chipset will command around $50. So from the NVIDIA accountant's point of view, this looks very attractive... nearly $30 of pure margin from a very simple chip and no R&D costs associated with developing a new chipset.

Intel should also be happy as they won't be competing againts NVIDIA for the enthusiast chipset market and any Intel platform can effectively be enabled with SLI by the motherboard manufacturer simply by designing a variation of their board that includes the NF200 chip.

If these rumors end up being true, it looks to be a Win-Win-Win!

Discuss this in the forums

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