Recently in 45nm Category

Intel has made clear its intentions to develop Atom processor-based system-on-chip devices for digital TVs and set-top boxes, writes Richard Wilson.

"The Atom processor CE4100 SoC, formerly codenamed Sodaville, is Intel's first 'consumer' chip fabbed on a 45nm process.

"Traditionally the domain of PowerPC, MIPS and embedded processors from Japanese suppliers such as Renesas, Toshiba, NEC and Sony, the digital TV is now a target application for Intel.

AMD is boasting the first sub-$100 Quad-Core CPU with the release of the Athlon II X4 (dubbed a "budget Phenom II X4" by one reviewer).

To be precise, it is the X4 620, with a 2.6GHz core clock speed, and a X4 630, running at 2.8GHz, will appear later. The chip has 2MB of L2 cache, a 4000MHz HyperTransport bus, and uses the AM3 socket. Based on 1,000 unit quantities, it is priced at $99.

Reading a bit more about Intel's Westmere developments I came across this handy slide for reference, showing how the various microarchitecture codenames stack up.



It's from 32nm Westmere Family of Processors by Stephen L. Smith Vice President, Director of Group Operations, Intel Digital Enterprise Group.

Bringing its 45nm Hi-k Nehalem microarchitecture to mainstream desktops and entry-level servers, Intel's new set of processors comprises: two Core i7 chips, a Core i5, and six Xeon 3400 series.

For 'high-performance desktops', read suitability for gaming, media processing and the more demanding apps.

All the processors are lead- and halogen-free, states Intel, and feature its Turbo Boost Technology (which enables a core to run faster than the base operating frequency if it's operating below power, current, and temperature specification limits). The top-of-the-line Core i7 processors also support Intel's Hyper-Threading Technology (thread-level parallelism on each processor).