Intel i7 name help

[DarkDoom99]

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?

[Guy]

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.

[Gandorf61]

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.

[Sbrideau]

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.

[MageUK]

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.