Intel's upcoming multi-core processors

The Intel Developer Forum will start within two weeks on August 23 but The Inquirer already gives us a short scoop of some of the things we can expect. Firstly we have the Pentium M Yonah. It's believed this processor will be 30 percent faster clock for clock, per core than the Dothan, especially in multimedia applications. The first main reason for this would be a better SSE1/2/3 engine instead of a somewhat hacked version in the older cores.

The second reason for the performance jump is an early exit for some instruction. This means that an instruction will be able to retire after eight or so stages of the 13 in the pipeline of the Yonah processor.

One of the other things Intel will talk about at the IDF will be multi-core products. One of them will be the four-core CSI Tukwila Itanium, which is slated for late 2007. But the real action should be the Merom/Conroe/Woodcrest line.

There's a chip called Cloverton. This is a four-core, two Woodcrest die MCM, processor slated for early in the fourth quarter of 2006. It's likely that AMD will prepare a quad-core K8 processor as an answer to Cloverton, even if volumes aren't great.

Now, why do I say that it will be not so hot on performance? Well, Woodcrest is set for a 1333FSB, which with a decent chipset like Blackford with its "DIB" will be about enough to keep it fed. The planned 1666FSB was pulled off the drawing board a while ago, so you can see what they were aiming for.

So, Cloverton has a big problem, the MCM means two chips on a green, but not lime-flavorued. It tastes awful, trust me here, chunk of organic fiber glassish material. This means two bus loads on a bus that needed to be cut down already. Cloverton will be on a 1066FSB, which in my humble opinion is nowhere near enough. Think elephant breathing through its trunk. Then through a straw. Then through a coffee stirring straw. Now crush one of the two straws that make up the stirrer. Get the elephant to run until it gets winded. On a hot day. That is Cloverton.

Read more about Cloverton, Merom and Woodcrest at The Inquirer