Nehalem is now i7

Intel has been on a roll these past few weeks with future product announcements ranging from Larrabee to System on Chips. They announced today that desktop processors based on the company’s upcoming new micro-architecture, the processor family formerly known as Nehalem, would carry the “Intel Core Processor” nomenclature. Considering the success of the Core series, this does not come as a surprise to us. However, the i7 designation has us wondering what the next series in the Core family will be called since i8 leads to all sorts of phrase variations. Without further adieu, here is the official press release from Intel.

The first products in this new family of processors, including an “Extreme Edition” version, will carry an “i7” identifier and will be formally branded as “Intel® Core™ i7 processor.” This is the first of several new identifiers to come as different products launch over the next year.

Products based on the new microarchitecture will deliver high performance and energy efficiency. This "best of both worlds" approach is expected to extend Intel’s processor leadership in future mobile, desktop and server market segments.

“The Core name is and will be our flagship PC processor brand going forward,” said Sean Maloney, Intel Corporation executive vice president and general manager, Sales and Marketing Group. “Expect Intel to focus even more marketing resources around that name and the Core i7 products starting now.”

The Intel Core i7 processor brand logo will be available for high-performance desktop PCs with a separate black logo for Intel’s highest-end “Extreme Edition.” Intel will include processor model numbers to differentiate each chip.

Initial products based on this micro-architecture are expected to be in production in the fourth quarter of this year. These processors will feature Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, also known as simultaneous multi-threading (introduced in the P4 series), and are capable of handling eight software “threads” on four processor cores.

We expect the "i7" designation to first appear on the Bloomfield series of chips with the blue logo addressing the bottom level speed bins. The black logo addresses the top speed bin that will be marketed as an Extreme Edition processor, probably with an extreme price to go along with it.

The mobile and entry level derivatives of Nehalem should be launched in the second half of next year although the brand names for these products could differ from the "i7" theme.