Intel Quietly Unveils Faster Core i7 Microprocessor.

Intel Begins to Ship Core i7-960 Chip

[10/20/2009 12:04 PM]
by Anton Shilov

Intel Corp. on Tuesday unveiled its new high-end microprocessor designed for gaming PCs as well as workstations. The fifth model in Intel’s Core i7 lineup brings slightly faster performance compared to predecessor, but is still behind the “cream of the creams”, the Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition.

Intel Core i7-960 chip features 4 cores with Hyper-Threading technology (thus, processors up to 8 threads at once), 8MB cache, 3.2GHz clock-speed, triple-channel DDR3 memory controller and is compatible with LGA1366 infrastructure. The new processor is made using 45nm process technology and will cost $562 in business quantities.

The new central processing unit will remain the fastest “non-extreme” Core i7 “Nehalem” processor in Intel’s lineup for a while, hence, its price will remain quite high. Considering the fact that the launch of the new chip coincides with the release of Microsoft Windows 7, the novelty will still be quite popular among high-end PC makers.

Intel did not release any official statements on the matter. The company also did not slash prices of other advanced microprocessors.

Tags: Intel, Core, Nehalem, Bloomfield, 45nm