
The Core i7 - The newest Intel core enhanced with on chip direct memory controller architecture, enhanced interconnect, SSE4 instruction set and 8MB of cache. Other than that the same enhancements present in the core 2 duo persist: virtualization technology, speedStep, disable Bit and 64 bit instruction architecture. The most interesting aspect of the i7 is the re-introduction of Multithreading in this release. Hyper-Threading provides execution enhancement for multitask enabled applications, by presenting itself as separate execution engines. Meaning a quad-core i7 will appear as an eight-core processor to the overlying operating system.

Intel is excited about the potential the new bread of processor has for intensive tasks like 3D gaming, video editing and audio encoding. Other than that, there isn't muc

h else to report on this chip. It is based mostly on existing technologies. What waits to be seen is will there be new interesting products created around the i7?
New on the Apple front?
I expect to see the i7 in a new breed of iMacs that presently host the Code 2 Duos. A quad core i7 would be a logical upgrade, and with a Hyper-Threading 8 core system, Apple would market it as an x2 boost in performance over its existing CPUs. At present the specifications for the i7 are not sufficiently different from the workstation Xenons. If the core i7 is made into a mobile chip, I see apple including it in a new line of Macbook Pro with 4 core processing, a x2 upgrade to their existing line.
The present roadmap for future Intel Xenon chips is a native 8 core chip with 16 threads, 24MB of Cache on a single die - Nahelem-EX. This is a candidate for a MacPro upgrade, but I am still not convinced that this is sufficient enough of an enhancement Apple's existing line of high-end workstations and servers.

What is interesting is the new bread of GPUs entering the market like the Nvidia TESLA. Early apple commercials boasted the G4 having super computer qualities, the ability to process 1 billion instructions per second. The Nvidia TESLA is proving that GPUs can also be used for heavy lifting. The Tesla C1060 with over 1 terraflop of processing power fits in a desktop PCIe 2.0 slot, providing 1 trillion (1,000 billion) instructions per second. Awesome visual computing power offered by the TESLA may not be useful for mainstream consumer/prosumers at the moment and may only find its way into high end medical or fluid dynamics based workstations. However the TESLA does remind me of Apple's PowerPC line of processors with Altivec which succeeded brilliantly when Adobe provide specialized software support in Photoshop. If apple integrated special Kernel instructions to OSX that would offload processing to the GPU I could see software getting an easy to implement boost without intervention from software companies. A Win-Win situation. That would more than complement apple's Marketing strategy of X boost in performance and would encourage new sales based on visual performance along with the new i7s for their MacPros. Look out, the Apple, Intel, Nvidia trio may surprise after all.
New on the Apple front?
I expect to see the i7 in a new breed of iMacs that presently host the Code 2 Duos. A quad core i7 would be a logical upgrade, and with a Hyper-Threading 8 core system, Apple would market it as an x2 boost in performance over its existing CPUs. At present the specifications for the i7 are not sufficiently different from the workstation Xenons. If the core i7 is made into a mobile chip, I see apple including it in a new line of Macbook Pro with 4 core processing, a x2 upgrade to their existing line.
The present roadmap for future Intel Xenon chips is a native 8 core chip with 16 threads, 24MB of Cache on a single die - Nahelem-EX. This is a candidate for a MacPro upgrade, but I am still not convinced that this is sufficient enough of an enhancement Apple's existing line of high-end workstations and servers.

What is interesting is the new bread of GPUs entering the market like the Nvidia TESLA. Early apple commercials boasted the G4 having super computer qualities, the ability to process 1 billion instructions per second. The Nvidia TESLA is proving that GPUs can also be used for heavy lifting. The Tesla C1060 with over 1 terraflop of processing power fits in a desktop PCIe 2.0 slot, providing 1 trillion (1,000 billion) instructions per second. Awesome visual computing power offered by the TESLA may not be useful for mainstream consumer/prosumers at the moment and may only find its way into high end medical or fluid dynamics based workstations. However the TESLA does remind me of Apple's PowerPC line of processors with Altivec which succeeded brilliantly when Adobe provide specialized software support in Photoshop. If apple integrated special Kernel instructions to OSX that would offload processing to the GPU I could see software getting an easy to implement boost without intervention from software companies. A Win-Win situation. That would more than complement apple's Marketing strategy of X boost in performance and would encourage new sales based on visual performance along with the new i7s for their MacPros. Look out, the Apple, Intel, Nvidia trio may surprise after all.
