Nehalem to be named Core i7?

It appears that Intel has set the brand-name under which it will market its processors based on the upcoming Nehalem micro-architecture. According to an article on Expreview.com, the new desktop parts will be known as Core i7 and should be introduced by Intel on Monday – although they won’t be available until the official launch in the last quarter of this year.

Core i7 processors will be made using 45nm process technology and will have from 2 to 8 cores, triple-channel DDR3 memory controller with up to 1333MHz clock-speeds, and support for multi-threading technology. Three models will supposedly be available en-masse starting at the end of this year, including a 3.2GHz Extreme processor for high-end gaming desktops. The significance of the i7 moniker remains unknown at this time but hopefully we’ll find out early next week.