Inclement weather on this side of the Atlantic ocean threw a turquoise parakeet off course today and a note it was holding in its beak fell into the INQUIRER"s back garden. The contents of the note appear to reveal future plans for future Intel desktop processors right up until 2005.
By then, according to the note, Intel will be able to deliver 10.20GHz desktop CPUs codenamed "Nehalem" and produced using 65 nanometer technology. If Intel manages to migrate away from the 90 nanometer technology it will introduce towards the end of this year, by then the "Prescott" core will deliver at least 5.20GHz using the 800MHz system bus.
The immediate successor to Prescott after it tops out at 5.20GHz will be the "Tejas" core, also produced on a 90 nanometer process and delivering 5.60GHz using a 1066MHz system bus. That"s slated to start appearing towards the end of 2004. Tejas will increase in steady increments which appear to be 6GHz, 6.40GHz, 6.80GHz, 7.20GHz, 7.60GHz, 7GHz, 8.40GHz, 8.80GHz and topping out at 9.20GHz. The first Nehalem is supposed to appear at 9.60GHz before Intel succeeds in its goal to produce a 10GHz+ chip, the Nehalem, and using a 1200MHz front side bus.