Nehalem

Nehalem refers to a family of microarchitectures developed by Intel, first released in 2008. It was a significant advancement in processor design, succeeding the Core microarchitecture. The Nehalem microarchitecture was the basis for Intel's first generation of Core i3, i5, and i7 processors, marking a shift towards integrated memory controllers and a redesign of the front-side bus, replaced by the QuickPath Interconnect (QPI). This allowed for improved memory latency and bandwidth.

Key features of the Nehalem microarchitecture included Turbo Boost technology, which dynamically increased processor clock speeds when thermal and power conditions allowed, and Hyper-Threading, which enabled each processor core to handle two threads simultaneously. It also introduced a triple-channel DDR3 memory controller integrated directly onto the CPU die, a departure from previous designs where this function resided on the northbridge of the motherboard chipset.

The Nehalem architecture was manufactured using a 45 nm process technology. It was initially available in dual-core and quad-core configurations, with some high-end models offering up to eight cores through Hyper-Threading. The Nehalem microarchitecture was succeeded by the Westmere microarchitecture, which was a die shrink of Nehalem to 32 nm. The architecture's innovations laid the groundwork for subsequent Intel processor generations, influencing processor design for many years.