At its Intel Developer Forum, the chip-making giant formally announces the family of quad-core mobile processors code-named Clarksfield, bringing the microarchitecture code-named Nehalem to high-end laptops. The new mobile Core i7 processors include Turbo Boost technology, multithreading capabilities and an integrated memory controller. At the same time, Dell announces an Alienware gaming notebook powered by a new mobile Core i7 chip.
SAN FRANCISCO-
Intel
is bringing its "Nehalem" microarchitecture to the mobile space in
the form of three new mobile Core i7 processors for high-end computing.
At the Intel Developer Forum here Sept. 23, Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president
and general manager for the company's Intel Architecture Group, unveiled the
"Clarksfield" family of quad-core mobile Nehalem chips: the Core
i7-920XM Extreme, Core i7-820QM and Core i7-720QM.
Perlmutter also said in early 2010 Intel will release "Arrandale,"
its first 32-nanometer mobile chip for mainstream systems. Arrandale also will
come with a 45-nm graphics chip and chip set.
"This will let us ... offer the best of graphics and the best of CPUs,"
Perlmutter said.
For a look at the new mobile Core i7s and notebooks using the chips, click here.
The introduction of Clarksfield and the talk of Arrandale came during a
wide-ranging discussion of where Intel officials are trying to drive the mobile
space. The Clarksfield chips come with such features as Turbo Boost, which
enables the dynamic scaling of a chip's speed depending on demand; multithreading
capabilities; and an integrated memory controller.
During the keynote, Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of
Intel's PC Client Group, demonstrated how the Turbo Boost feature will crank up
the speed of processing cores that are in use when other cores go idle, which
can increase the chip's overall frequency to over 3GHz.
Mooly said the chips are good not only for gaming and multimedia purposes,
but also for high-end enterprise computing.
"It says mobile, it says workstation, but it has the power of a
server," he said.
Dell already is taking advantage of the new chips. The OEM on Sept. 23
announced the Alienware M15x, a compact gaming laptop that includes a mobile
Core i7-920Xm chip as well as an Nvidia graphics chip.
Dell also rolled out the Alienware Aurora and Aurora ALX
desktops, which feature Core i7 Extreme Edition chips from Intel, and the Alienware
Area-51 and Area-51 ALX, with overclocked
Core i7 processors.
During his keynote, Perlmutter also introduced the next version of Intel's Anti-Theft
Security software, which offers enhanced data encryption, which will be
released in 2010.
Perlmutter said Intel engineers are working to bring SSDs (solid-state
drives) into mobile devices, which will improve response time, battery life and
performance over traditional hard drives.
Regarding connectivity, he said Intel is moving toward a time in 2011 when
it will be able to offer fully integrated connectivity capabilities for both
Wi-Fi and WiMax.
Engineers also are working on a project that will bring high-speed (10G bps)
optical I/O connectivity.
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