Intel Nehalem architecture analyzed

At this IDF, Intel is announcing the details of Nehalem, a second generation 45nm microprocessor and the next step in the evolution of their flagship line. Nehalem differs from the previous generation in that it was explicitly designed not only to scale across all the different product lines, but to be optimized for all the different product segments, from mobile to MP server. This implies a level of flexibility above and beyond the Core 2. Nehalem refines almost every aspect of the microprocessor, although the most substantial changes were to the system architecture and the memory hierarchy. This article describes in detail the architecture and pipeline of Nehalem, a quad-core, eight threaded, 64 bit, 4 issue super-scalar, out-of-order MPU with a 16 stage pipeline, 48 bit virtual and 40 bit physical addressing, implemented in Intel’s high performance 45nm process which uses high-K gate dielectrics and metal gate stacks.