The Core i7 marks the biggest change in processors since Intel stopped producing the Pentium 4 and abandoned the megahertz race.  See what makes it such a big deal after the jump.

Since Intel introduced its Core processors, it has only made minor improvements.  More cores were added, the die size got smaller, and some auxiliary features were added to improve energy efficiency and performance.  With the i7, though, Intel has created the the quantum leap forward in CPU speed that many have been waiting for.

What makes the Core i7 so different from everything before it is that it integrates many things that used to reside elsewhere on the motherboard.  By centralizing those things, many of the bottlenecks that slowed down computer performance are removed.

I will spare you the technical details, but Intel has gotten rid of the front-side bus and integrated the memory controller on to the CPU.  Long story short, it is much faster.

One feature of the i7 is actually something old: Hyper-Threading.  Hyper-Threading existed on the Pentium 4′s to make one processor work like two.  Intel is bringing it back because more software programs and both Windows 7 and OS X Snow Leopard will be able to take advantage of multiple threads.

Finally, Intel has also built-in overclocking to the i7 and added support for triple-channel memory.  So expect to see machines with RAM chips in multiples of three, instead of the previous two.

Currently, the Core i7 is only available as a desktop processor, and a very expensive one at that.  Prices will come down as 2009 progresses though and towards the end of the year, the i7 should make its way into laptops.

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