Intel Nehalem..er...Core i7 coming soon to a Mac near you?

Two signs that Intel's upcoming powerhouse chips and architecture are right around the corner have come to light in the last 24 hours. First, the controversial new branding for Nehalem. 'Core i7' is the moniker; confusion abounds. Next, the price cuts on current high-end desktop and server chips.

All of the duckies are lining up.

'Core i7'. What the heck does that mean? Core used to refer to the number of processor cores in the chip. When Intel started getting high in core numbers, confusing names started to be used, like 'Core2 Duo' -- is that 2x2=4?

'i7' sounds like iPod, iMac, iPhone, I think. No doubt Apple will use these speed burners in their high-end Mac Pros and XServes later this year, but is Intel biting off of its partner a little bit? Maybe "i" stands for iteration, like G stands for generation? That means we are already on iteration 7. Cool.

The other news is that Intel is lowering its prices on current high-end desktop and server chips (from eWeek):

The changes to Intel’s chip pricing were officially released Aug. 10, and those changes include cutting the price of the high-end Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (2.83GHz) by 40 percent from $530 to $316. Intel also added a new Core 2 Quad chip into the mix called the Q9650 (3.0GHz) at a price of $530.

Other additions to the high-end lineup include the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (2.66GHz) at a price of $266. All three of these desktop chips are built on the company’s 45-nanometer manufacturing process.

Intel's description of Core i7:

• Dynamic scalability, managed cores, threads, cache, interfaces, and power for energy-efficient performance on demand.
• Design and performance scalability for server, workstation, PC, and mobile demands with support for 2-8+ cores and up to 16+ threads with simultaneous multi-threading (SMT), and scalable cache sizes, system interconnects, and integrated memory controllers.
• Simultaneous multi-threading brings high-performance applications into mainstream computing with 1-16+ threads optimized for a new generation multi-core processor architecture.
• Scalable shared memory of Intel QuickPath technology features memory distributed to each processor with integrated memory controllers and high-speed point-to-point interconnects to unleash the performance of next-generation Intel® multi-core processors.
• Multi-level shared cache improves performance and efficiency by reducing latency to frequently used data.

MaximumPC got their hands on a 2.93GHz version of the Core i7 chip codenamed Bloomfield and put it through its paces. (spoiler alert) It is faster and more energy efficient than Penryn.

So, Apple, when will we see Mac Pros built around these guys?

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