Future Intel Processors to Boast Six Cores

By Nick Mokey Published March 17, 2008

Move over, quad-core processors; Intel is moving up to six – and beyond – in the near future. In a company briefing on the future of its processor business, Intel revealed plans for three new chips, including two that will hit offer six or more cores, as well as a new architecture.

Intel hopes to provide a ready replacement for its existing Quad-Core Xeon processors with the new Dunnington chipset, which will come with six cores and fit into the same Caneland sockets used by the Quad-Core Xeons. Besides its six cores, the 45nm processor will offer FlexMigration technology, which allows server farms to build a single virtualization pool across machines based on 45nm and the older 65nm architecture. It will debut during the second half of 2008.

Recommended Videos

The Itanium processor series will receive a step up with the new Tukwila platform, a next-generation quad-core product that Intel claims will drive the world’s most powerful computers. It boasts an as-of-yet-unheard-of 30MB cache along with QuickPath Interconnects, an ultra-quick path between memory and processor. Intel claims these advances will double the performance of existing Itanium processors.

Finally, Intel’s new Nehalem platform will be the most scalable new product, offering anywhere from 2 to 8 cores and possible support for memory all the way up to DDR3-1333. Simultaneous multithreading will allows the chips to process between 4 and 16 threads. Like the Tukwila, it will also offer QuickPath Interconnects.

Besides the second-half-of 2008 deadline on the Dunnington processors, Intel revealed no more information on the upcoming availability of its other processors.

Editor in Chief

As Digital Trends’ Editor in Chief, Nick Mokey oversees an editorial team covering every gadget under the sun, along with…

Computing

Intel’s new Arrow Lake CPUs can still consume a ton of power

Pins on Core i9-12900K.

Intel has made a big deal about the efficiency of its upcoming Arrow Lake CPUs, which are looking to earn a spot among the best processors when they release later this week. Some early benchmark results HXL on X (formerly Twitter) show that the CPUs can still draw a ton of power if you stray from Intel's default power settings, however.

The post, which you can see below, shows the Core Ultra 9 285K peaking at 370 watts of power draw in Cinebench R23's multi-core test. The CPU itself is blacked-out, but you can tell it's the Core Ultra 9 285K from the 24 cores picked up by Cinebench. The Core Ultra 9 285K has a maximum turbo power of 250W, according to Intel, and a base power of 125W.

Computing

Intel’s new Core Ultra 9 285K may struggle against its predecessor

Intel's 14900K CPU socketed in a motherboard.

Intel Arrow Lake processors are here, and the Core Ultra 9 285K stands at the top of the lineup as Intel's current best CPU. However, the chip faces a lot of competition not just from AMD, but also from Intel's own last-gen Raptor Lake refresh. Even Intel itself can't deny that performance-wise, the Core Ultra 9 285K and the Core i9-14900K are not that far off.

Although the performance uplift might be subtle (or even non-existent) at times, Intel's Core Ultra 9 285K does bring some interesting changes. Here's a rundown of how the Core Ultra 9 285K and the Core i9-14900K stack up against each other.
Pricing and availability

Computing

I’m worried Intel is making a mistake with Arrow Lake

Someone holding the Core i9-12900KS processor.

For the last several years, every new generation from Intel has felt like a make-or-break moment. Now, with Arrow Lake CPUs, the stakes are even higher. Intel is facing unprecedented financial troubles, and although it still makes some of the best processors, the silicon giant that used to loom over the PC industry isn’t as strong as it once was.

Arrow Lake is yet another major shift. The CPUs kill Intel’s long-standing Hyper-Threading feature. They introduce two new core architectures. And they debut the Core Ultra branding on desktop, along with the new LGA 1851 socket. I’m worried that Intel’s strategy won’t work with Arrow Lake, though.