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Intel’s New Nehalem Processors Promise More With Less
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With the cost of energy an on-going and escalating dynamic, businesses are demanding more power efficient computer systems. Intel has recently mapped out its plans for processors that the majority of new PCs and servers will be utilizing over the next year, beginning in the fourth quarter.
Code named Nehalem, the new family of processors will be introduced later this year with the first designs for high-end desktop PCs and dual-processor server platforms. New processors for mainstream desktop PCs, laptops and four-way and greater servers are expected in the second half of 2009. The devices will be available with two, four or eight processing cores.
Within the Nehalem processors will be a feature called turbo mode, a mechanism controlled by embedded microcontrollers within the processors that will enable power gates to turn individual processing cores on and off depending on the workload, reducing wasted power. The turbo mode can be scaled to virtually zero leakage current, and when cores are shut down, active cores will have an ability to perform at higher frequencies than the stated processor speed.
“The key in power management is actually quite simple – shut things off when they are not in use,” said Rajesh Kumar, an Intel fellow at the recent Intel Developer Forum. “Actually doing it was really hard. We had to develop an entirely new process technology around this idea of how to build a perfect power switch.”
The algorithms handled by the microcontroller-based power control units within the processors utilize more than a million transistors, which is more transistors than were used within Intel’s original 486 processor design.
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