Intel has unveiled a little more on the Nehalem’s Turbo Mode. This technology consists of putting some of the cores at rest while increasing the frequency of active cores. In this way, if CPU use is high but concentrated on 1 or 2 cores when the application(s) is not adapted to multiple cores, performances will be boosted.
In the beginning this was a technology that appeared in the mobile world in order to maximize performances for any given thermal envelop. For desktop PCs, its interest is less compared to an entire CPU’s higher frequency but if it is functional why not integrate it? Compared to current technology, the Nehalem should provide support with less intervention by the OS but we do not know anymore as Intel did not want to go too much into detail.
Neither did they elaborate on the maximum authorized frequency for this "overclocking" even if on some samples that are in current circulation, it consists of increasing the multiplier by one unit in going from 4 to 2 active cores and then another unit by going to a single active core. For example, with a Nehalem running at 2.93 GHz with a multiplier of 22, each increase consists of a supplementary 133 MHz. Therefore a Nehalem at 2.93 GHz will go as high as 3.2 GHz in load on a single core.
However despite everything, Pat Gelsinger gave us one other detail: Extreme versions of the Nehalem will still have an unblocked multiplier as much in base frequencies as in those in Turbo Mode. It will therefore be possible to specify maximum levels in the bios.
