Getting To The Core Of Intel's New Core i7 CPUs

Getting To The Core Of Intel's New Core i7 CPUs

Intel's new "Bloomfield" quad-core Core i7 processors are the company's first to be based on its long-previewed "Nehalem" architecture. This is the first major technology jump since mid-2006, when Core 2 CPUs showed up on the scene.


Intel also makes its move to step up Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) instructions to improve graphics and reduce times for transcoding video. It'll be interesting to see how this move stacks up to what Nvidia's been proposing for a while now: using a GPU and lower-end CPU with better, more cost-effective transcoding performance.

The meaty 3.2-GHz Core i7 965 Extreme sells for roughly a "mere" $1060.