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IDG News Service – A year after its launch, Intel is pushing the Nehalem microarchitecture into mainstream PCs with the release of its first Core i5 chip on Tuesday.

The Core i5-750 is a quad-core processor aimed at desktop PCs where multimedia is a priority. It is the first chip based on the Nehalem design that will be aimed at PCs priced for the mainstream. Nehalem boasts improvements that make it faster and more power-efficient than its predecessors.

The first Nehalem chips were Core i7 processors introduced last November, which went into desktops priced from around US$1,700 and aimed at gamers and other high-performance users. Earlier this year Intel launched Xeon server chips based on the same architecture.

The Core i5-750 runs at 2.66GHz and has 8MB of cache. It draws 95 watts of power and is priced at $196 when bought in volume.

The performance gains from the chip could be enough reason for people to upgrade their PCs, said principal analyst Dean McCarron at Mercury Research. Nehalem was a significant architectural upgrade for Intel, and it usually takes a year for a chip maker to bring new technology to mainstream audiences.

Nehalem integrates a memory controller onto the chip to provide a faster access path to memory. Current mainstream chips have a memory controller on the chipset. Nehalem also provides a faster pipe for the CPU to communicate with system components like a graphics card.

The new chip doesn’t support Nehalem’s full capabilities, however. The architecture can run two threads per core, but the chip released Monday has only one enabled. “We provide a range of capabilities with our processors at different price points,” an Intel spokesman said via e-mail.

The chip is being manufactured using the 45-nanometer process. Its launch comes just a few weeks ahead of the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), where Intel is expected to shed some light on chips manufactured with the more advanced 32-nm process. Intel will start manufacturing 32-nm chips for mainstream desktops and laptops by the end of the year.

Intel also launched two new quad-core Core i7 chips for high-end systems on Monday. They are the Core i7-870, which runs at 2.93GHz, and the Core i7-860, which runs at 2.8GHz. Both have 8MB caches. The Core i7-870 is priced at $562 and the Core i7-860 at $284.

The company also introduced new Nehalem-based Xeon server chips at speeds ranging from 1.86GHz to 2.93GHz, priced from $189 to $589 in volume.

IDG News Service – Intel will focus on its next generation of smaller and faster chips at a conference next month as it prepares to ship new chips for systems in 2010.

Intel plans to shed more light on the Westmere architecture at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), which will be held Sept. 22-24 in San Francisco. The company is expected to talk about the architecture behind its future chips for servers, laptops and desktops.

Chips based on Westmere will be made using the advanced 32-nanometer process and should deliver performance and power benefits over existing Intel chips made using the 45-nm process. Initial chips will integrate a CPU and graphics processor in a single package, which could improve graphics performance while drawing less power.

A server zone at IDF will focus on the Westmere-EP platform, where performance of server chips based on the new architecture will be highlighted. The company is expected to talk about many chip features, including security capabilities, and could show off systems at the show.

The first Westmere chips will go into laptops and desktops as early as the first half of 2010. Initial Westmere chips will be dual-core CPUs with 4MB of cache, and will include an integrated memory controller. Clock speeds could remain similar to existing processors, but performance could see a boost by running two threads on each core, Intel officials have said.

Initial Westmere-based laptop chips, code-named Arrandale, could preserve battery life while improving graphics performance. The desktop chips are code-named Clarkdale. The chips are expected to go into production in the fourth quarter this year, though samples have already shipped to laptop and desktop PC makers for testing.

The Westmere architecture is the basis of some of Intel’s future laptop and desktop chips, including the Core i3, i5 and 7 chips, wrote Ken Kaplan in a blog entry on Intel’s Web site on Wednesday.

The chip package’s CPU will be made using the advanced 32-nanometer manufacturing process. The graphics processor will be made using the 45-nm process.

Westmere is a process shrink of Intel’s current Nehalem microarchitecture, which forms the basis of the existing Core i7 high-end desktop and Xeon 5500 server chips. Nehalem integrates a memory controller with the CPU and provides a fast pipeline for processors and system components to communicate.

Nehalem was a big architectural shift as it was Intel’s first microprocessor with an integrated memory controller, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. But early systems based on Nehalem were expensive with prices above $1,000.

“Westmere is going to let the [Nehalem] architecture be much more broadly used,” McCarron said. The process shrink lowers the cost of production for Intel, which could help push the chip design to inexpensive systems, he said.

Intel revamped its chip road map in February, saying it would move to a 32-nanometer process more quickly than it had originally planned. The company would spend $7 billion over the next two years to revamp manufacturing plants in order to reduce manufacturing costs while increasing production.

Intel may also focus on the Larrabee chip during the show, McCarron said. Larrabee will include many cores and combine processing capabilities of graphics processing units with the x86 architecture, improving application and graphics performance. The chip — being called a graphics processor — is targeted at the gaming market and industries that require high-end parallel processing and graphics power, like oil and gas exploration..

“This will probably be the last IDF till Larrabee launches,” McCarron said. Intel has said it would ship Larrabee in early 2010.