Intel has recently released sixteen new chips that incorporate the 45nm Hafnium-based high-k metal gate transistors which have been proven to be smaller, faster and more eco-friendly than previous generations. According to Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of Intel, he thinks that this new process is a major breakthrough as the biggest transistor advancement in 40 years. In addition, this improvement is tipped to further extend Moore’s Law - at least for a little while longer when other folks thought that it is done and over with already.

These new processors managed to cram in a whopping 420 million transistors into each individual dual core chip, while each quad core chip has double that amount - which translates to nearly a 100% increase in transistor density compared to previous models. Both the Intel Core 2 Extreme and Xeon processors also hold the distinction of being the first to be manufactured on the 45 nanometer scale - a move that sees performance being boosted to unprecedented levels while lowering power consumption, a step that ought to go down well with folks who think that PCs consume way too much power than they should.

A dozen new quad-core chips will feature clock speeds that range between 2GHz and 3.20GHz, featuring front side bus speeds of up to 1600MHz, while cache sizes have reached an amazing 12MB in size. Not only that, three new dual-core chips boast clock speeds of up to 3.40GHz, a front side bus speed of up to 1600MHz, and cache sizes of 6MB. As for the 45nm Hi-k Intel Xeon processors, they are compatible with server platforms using the Intel 5000 chipset family. Three other platform solutions that support the new 45nm processors are:

- The Intel 5400 chipset-based platform (previously codenamed “Stoakley”) that is optimized for high-bandwidth applications like high-performance computing
(HPC).

-The Intel 5100 Memory Controller Hub chipset and Intel ICH-9R I/O controller (previously codenamed “Cranberry Lake”). These are cost-optimized solutions
that support either one or two processors and also provide reduced power consumption using native DDR2 memory.

- The Intel 3200 chipset-based platform (previously codenamed “Garlow”) that is specifically designed for single-processor entry servers.

Source: Gizmag