I have been looking at the new i7s and I have not been able to find out what the names mean. So my question is what is the difference between the i7 Bloomfield, Sandy Bridge, Lynnfield and Gulftown?

Sandy bridge is the new 32nm architecture, noted i7-xxxx. Lynnfield is i7-8xx 45nm architecture. Gulftown is the i7-xxx hexacore processors. Bloomfield is the i7-9xx 45nm architecture. This is all on google/wikipedia.

Bloomfield - Last generation processor, quad core, 8 threads

 

Gulftown - Last generation processor, 6 core, 12 threads

 

Lynnfield - Similar to Bloomfield except uses a different socket type

 

Sandy Bridge - Current generation processor 4 cores/8 threads, or 6 cores/12 threads

 

If you're looking on buying a new computer you'll want to get one that uses Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. For desktops they will be named as i7 2xxx.

Guys, Sandy Bridge isn't the current architecture anymore as of last Monday. It is now Sandy Bridge-E.

 

That said Sandy Bridge is currently the best choice to go to, when looking at a processor. For example in my laptop I have a Sandy Bridge, which is the i7-2630QM, and it is very powerful.

Guys, Sandy Bridge isn't the current architecture anymore as of last Monday. It is now Sandy Bridge-E.

 

That said Sandy Bridge is currently the best choice to go to, when looking at a processor. For example in my laptop I have a Sandy Bridge, which is the i7-2630QM, and it is very powerful.

 

Well that's not really the case. The current architecture is still Sandy Bridge, the E-series is just a variant of it. The next thing that will make Sandy Bridge "not the current architecture" is Ivy Bridge which is coming early 2012 and involves a die shrink.