Core i7-975 Processor Review

One thing that we, and the rest of the PC community, have been waiting for is Intel’s Nehalem architecture to reach the mainstream market with the processor codenamed Lynnfield, commonly referred to as the Core i5 (we are still just guessing). Lynnfield will offer the same quad-core design with HyperThreading on some models (low-cost models may not include HT support) while removing one of the DDR3 memory channels and integrated 16 lanes of PCI Express 2.0 on to the chip itself. The chipset market will get a dramatic shift as X58 (still a two chip solution) makes way for the P5-series that will be a single chip solution for I/O and a DMI connection to the CPU.

This all adds up to a lower cost platform – something enthusiasts would clamor for. But the delays keep mounting for Lynnfield and the debate wages on whether these are technical delays on the CPU itself or political delays due to a huge amount of Core 2 and P4-series chipset products sitting in the channel. Either way, I think we’ll be lucky to see wide availability of Lynnfield before September/October and thus the Core i7 becomes a more attractive option for users looking to upgrade soon.