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On 15 Nov 2008, Intel moves forward with a new micro architecture commonly known as Nehalem or Core i7. This new architecture is quite different from the current Core 2 Duo as it integrates the memory controller within the processor just like what AMD does. It also introduces a concept Quick Path Interconnect (QPI), which is quite similar to Hyper transport what you already have on AMD platform. Basically this new concept does away with the North bridge but it still has something known as IOH which connects to CPU via QPI link. Effectively, the bulk of the work now lies with the south bridge ICH10R. QPI can scale up to 25.6GB/sec of bandwidth between Core™ i7 Processors and the rest of the system, providing exactly Double bandwidth of 1600 MHz FSB.
Currently, there are processor models available, models 920 and 940 has a QPI of 4.8GT/s (133 x 36) a Model 965 QPI of 6.3 GT/s (133x48).
This new architecture also increase the system throughput by introducing 3 channels memory architecture. It can take up to 6 DIMMs, up to 2 DIMMs per channel. In addition, Intel Turbo Boost Technology dynamically reroutes power to improve performance. It powers down the idle cores and dynamically reroutes the power to the active cores. Thus it is able to boost their performance without wasting power and allowing the active cores to achieve significant overclock performance.
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