Prior to Intel Shanghai IDF from April 2 - 3, 2008, news are boiling over the internet that Intel will launch a 6-core processor, Dunnington, in 2H 08. Dunnington would be Intel’s first monolithic design since its original Core 2 Duo chips released in 2006. A glimpse of the Intel’s six-core Dunnington processor is available on Intel’s website (see slide below). The slide indicates that Dunnington has six 45-nanometer Penryn-class cores integrated onto a single die. Each pair of Penryn cores shares 3MBs of Level 2 cache, and each of the six cores can access 16MBs of Level 3 cache (Ref).

Dunnington will be Intel’s last generation of 45nm Penryn processor. The Penryn is the tick version of Intel 45nm processor. The next generation tock version of Intel 45nm processor, Nehalem, is expected to launch end of the year. In the face of challenge from AMD’s quad core processor Barcelona, Intel has chosen to build quad-core chips by taking two dual-core chips and putting them into a special package. This approach was scorned by chip design purists who prefer AMD’s monolithic quad-core design. However, it seems to work for Intel by quickly getting the quad-core chips out to the market. Now, Dunnington will be Intel’s direct response to AMD’s quad-core Barcelona.

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Coming to the end of July, there are two news on Intel. One good and one bad. Bad new first. The European Commission has issued a Statement of Objections, formally charging Intel with violating the European Union’s competition laws by abusing its monopoly position in the global microprocessor market and stating that “in the short, medium and long-term, we think that the actions of Intel are bad news for competition and consumers” (Ref). According to the EC’s formal charge sheet, Intel has:

• Provided substantial rebates to various OEMs conditional on them obtaining all or the great majority of their CPU requirements from Intel.
• Made payments in order to induce an OEM to either delay or cancel the launch of a product line incorporating an AMD-based CPU.
• In the context of bids against AMD-based products for strategic customers in the server segment of the market, Intel offered CPUs on average below cost.

On the good news, Intel has already begun releasing Caneland platform (including microprocessor and chipset) to its OEM partners, and is ramping up the product for a third-quarter launch (Ref). The details of the caneland platform were posted on the Intel company blog (Blog@Intel). The blog offered a six-minute interview with Kirk Skaugen, vice president and General Manager of Intel’s Server Products Group. The interview video is shown here.