September 4 - 10:55am EDT   Intel's first processor with more than four cores will launch within less than two weeks, a leak from within the industry claims. The architecture previously codenamed Dunnington technology should start shipping on September 15th as the Xeon 7400 series and will carry its planned six cores, helping out with particuarly demanding computing tasks, especially virtualization of multiple operating systems. [full story]

August 19 - 7:45pm EDT   Intel's next-generation Core i7 Processors will include a new "Turbo Mode," that delivers a speed boost without a "heat penalty." Pat Gelsinger, Senior VP and General Manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group outlined the company's processor roadmap in his keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco Tuesday. He said the i7 chips will make its first appearance in desktop PCs and "energy-efficient high-performace server products," code-named "Nehalem-EP." [full story]

August 14 - 1:55pm EDT   Intel's upcoming processor generations will double the number of cores per chip and add a brand new language for specialized code, according to leaked slides obtained by CanardPlus. Although the semiconductor company's Core i7 will just receive a manufacturing process shrink down from 45 nanometers to 32 during 2009, reducing its power use and allowing more complex parts, a replacement architecture codenamed Sandy Bridge will replace it by 2010 and double the number of cores per die to eight. Hyperthreading support will let it handle as many as 16 code threads at once, while a large 16MB pool of Level 3 cache will be shared to make best use of the cores. [full story]

August 10 - 5:55pm EDT   Intel on Sunday quickly confirmed recent leaks with official word that its next-generation Nehalem processor architecture will be named Core i7. The move continues the Core name despite a major platform change and signals the new line's status as Intel's seventh major architecture since it began with the 8086 decades earlier. The highest-performing versions of the processor line will still add the Extreme Edition badge to reflect their extra features, which often include a speed multiplier unlock friendly to overclockers. [full story]

August 8 - 9:55am EDT   Intel's Nehalem processor architecture will still hold to the Core naming scheme when it appears late this year, if an apparent leak of company logos proves authentic. Although the platform will make fundamental changes, Nehalem will reportedly be known as Core i7 for at least all its desktop variants, which will include dual- and quad-core mainstream processors as well as a 3.2GHz Extreme processor for high-end gaming desktops. [full story]

August 5 - 9:55am EDT   Information has surfaced for Intel's future Calpella notebook platform, according to an alleged leak from companies that will produce mainboards based on the technology. The design will be the first mobile design to drop the need for separate northbridge and southbridge chipsets by moving the DDR3 memory controller and other typical northbridge components to the processor itself, which uses the new Nehalem architecture; a new bridge chip, nicknamed Ibex Peak-M, will handle all the remaining duties. [full story]

July 28 - 4:25pm EDT   Apple is dropping Intel's reference platform in favor of custom circuitry, according to a new rumor floated by AppleInsider. Although every Intel-based Mac has to date used Intel's stock chipsets but with a custom layout, Apple is now purportedly using little to none of Intel's own components in favor of outside parts. Whether this involves licensing components from an outside firm or even custom-designed chips is unknown, though Apple would keep using Intel's processors. [full story]

July 18 - 4:00pm EDT   Intel will go back to the old days of pricing its flagship chips at $999 apiece when ordered in bulk, thousand-piece quantities, says a Friday report that cites mainboard manufacturers as its sources. The move is believed to have been made in order to speed up the adoption of quad-core CPUs, and pertains specifically to the chipmaker's upcoming 3.2GHz Extreme-series desktop Nehalem processors nicknamed Bloomfield. [full story]

June 24 - 11:20am EDT   Intel will ship three processors based on its next-generation Nehalem architecture before the end of the year, say those in the mainboard industry. While Intel has only demonstrated a test version of a 3.2GHz, quad-core processor in the past, the company is now understood to be launching a production version sometime in the last quarter of the year that will appear alongside lower-priced 2.66GHz and 2.93GHz versions. All three will have 8MB of Level 2 cache and support Hyperthreading that could have a four-core chip behave as though it were eight with optimized software. [full story]

April 2 - 4:30pm EDT   Intel at its Developer Forum today demonstrated a 3.2GHz example of its upcoming Nehalem processor technology. Already clocked at 3.2GHz, the chip is the first public example of the successor to today's Core architecture and is the fastest x86 chip from Intel capable of handling more than four threads: the addition of Hyperthreading support allows each of the four cores in the example to run as many as two instruction threads at a time, allowing it to handle the work of eight cores in certain circumstances. Dual- and quad-processor systems will handle as many as 16 or 32 threads at once with the design. [full story]

March 18 - 1:35pm EDT   The upcoming Nehalem processor design will not just be an upgrade to existing processors but a complete replacement for the Core architecture, Intel has explained as part of a press briefing. It will be built on the same 45 nanometer manufacturing process as today's Penryn architecture but is designed to be extremely scalable: in addition to scaling from as few as two cores per chip to as many as 8, Nehalem can be optimized to run efficiently in notebooks or at full speed for servers and workstations. [full story]

March 17 - 4:55pm EDT   Speaking to the press in a conference call, Intel has revealed more details on some of its upcoming processor technologies. Among these is "Larrabee," an upcoming graphics chipset; while it should be integrated into motherboards, as Intel has done with most such efforts, the company says it expects to produce dedicated cards, raising the specter of competition with NVIDIA and AMD/ATI. Larrabee processors should scale to the multi-teraflop level, and will use a global cache shared by all cores. Larrabee products should begin shipping in 2009. [full story]

February 25 - 1:35pm EST   Information has purportedly leaked on two upcoming Intel technologies. Foremost is a new Xeon CPU codenamed "Dunnington," which is said to use three dual-core processors based on 45nm Penryn technology. The CPU should use a shared 16MB L3 cache, but each core pairing is described as having 3MB of L2 memory. The chip is further said to have a 1,066MTs interconnect, and thermal design power rated under 130W. [full story]

January 16 - 11:05am EST   Intel's fastest-ever mainstream quad-core processor has been delayed at least a month, say alleged insiders from mainboard suppliers. While originally pegged for a launch in January that follows just two months after the earlier 3GHz model became widely available, the new 45 nanometer chip has been pushed back to February and potentially March. No explanation has been given for the delay, which is set to take place even though the 3.2GHz processor is still estimated to cost $1,399 each in bulk -- about $400 more than the next-quickest model. [full story]