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Starting Monday, Nov 12th, Intel will launch 16 new Penryn based processors.  The initial launch will primarily be Xeon processors, but one desktop processor, the QX9650 is also being launched.  The new Penryn based processors feature Intel's new 45nm High-k metal gate silion process that features transistors with reduced current leakage: the result?  Lower power consumption and increase clock speeds.  The Penryn also features incremental improvements to the Core 2 architecture.  We reviewed the QX9650 Extreme Edition CPU a little over a week ago and detail how these improvements directly impact performance.  Generally these 45nm processors are extremely impressive and a welcome improvement to the Core 2.  Here's an excertp from today's Press Release:

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 11, 2007 – Built using an entirely new transistor formula that alleviates the wasteful electricity leaks that threaten the pace of future computer innovation, Intel Corporation today unveiled 16 server and high-end PC processors. In addition to increasing computer performance and saving energy use, these processors also eliminate eco-unfriendly lead and, in 2008, halogen materials.

Called the biggest transistor advancements in 40 years by Intel Co-Founder Gordon Moore, the processors are the first to use Intel’s Hafnium-based high-k metal gate (Hi-k) formula for the hundreds of millions of transistors inside these processors. These Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme and Xeon® processors are also the first to be manufactured on the company’s 45-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process, further boosting performance and lowering power consumption.

Combining these two advancements with new processor features enables Intel to continue delivering faster and more energy-efficient processors that are better for the environment. The breakthroughs clear the path for Intel to design products that are 25 percent smaller than previous versions and, thus, more cost-effective, as well as the ability next year to pursue new ultra mobile and consumer electronics “system on chip” opportunities.

 

The move from 65nm to 45nm involves more than just a shrink of current chip designs. The processors include such additional features as new Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (SSE4), which are 47 new instructions that speed up workloads including video encoding for high-definition and photo manipulation, as well as key HPC and enterprise applications. Software vendors supporting the new SSE4 instruction set include Adobe*, Microsoft* and Symantec*.

Additional processor performance enhancing architectural features include:

• Enhanced Intel® Virtualization Technology -- Virtual machine transition (entry/exit) times are improved by an average of 25 to 75 percent through hardware with no changes to software required.
• Fast Division of Numbers – A fast divider roughly doubles the speed over previous generations for computations used in nearly all applications through a technique called Radix 16. The ability to divide instructions and commands faster increases a computer’s performance.
• Unique Super Shuffle Engine -- By implementing a wider 128-bit shuffle unit, performance significantly improves for SSE-related instructions that have shuffle-like operations. This feature will increase performance for content creation, imaging, video and high-performance computing.

Most of these processors will be available immediately.  Full details on all the parts, along with quantity pricing and FSB details are in the following chart: