Intel's first next processors based on its next-generation 'Nehalem' architecture are due to appear a year from now, in Q4 2008. But the really interesting models will arrive during the first half of 2009.
The chip giant's roadmap currently has the first Nehalems, codenamed 'Bloomfield', coming on stream late next year and targeting gaming PCs, just as this month introduction of the first Core 2 Extreme 'Penryn' processors did. Like Penryn, Nehalem is designed to fabbed using a 45nm process.
Bloomfield's speeds are not yet known, but it's expected to use a new, 1366-pin interconnect. As we've reported before, that forms the basis for the CPU's QuickPath bus, which links its four cores - each, don't forget, including HyperThreading (HT) technology to allow them to operates as two cores for a total of eight - to three channels of DDR 3 memory, according to a report on Japanese-language site PCWatch.
