New Intel processor does away with front side bus, adds third level of cache, brings back Hyperthreading

7:00 am PST • November 3, 2008

The fine people over at APC Mag got their hands on Intel’s Core i7 Nehalem processor (codenamed Bloomfield) and have bestowed upon us the following information:

Intel has moved the memory controller onto the chip itself, which has made the chip larger, which means we’ll be getting a new socket size (socket LGA1366). So you’ll need a new motherboard, basically.
The front side bus (FSB) has been completely replaced by what Intel is calling QuickPath Interconnect (QPI). QPI can outhustle FSB handily and facilitates direct communication between the CPU and RAM (read more here).
Bloomfield adds level three cache. It’s 8MB shared amongst four cores.
The new motherboard chipset is codenamed “Tylersburg” and will integrate Intel’s X58 chipset. Mobo’s available at launch will be from GIGABYTE, Asus, MSI, and EVGA.
Intel is bringing back Hyperthreading – these new chips will be able to handle two threads per core.
X58 motherboards from Intel will initially include four RAM slots. Boards from other manufacturers can and will include six. That’s a lot of RAM.

We should start seeing these new CPUs and motherboards this month.