Nemesis11
Power Member

Exclusive: Intel "Skulltrail 2" is based upon 8-Core Nehalem-EX
During Computex, we sat down with Intel and learned about V16, the successor of Skulltrail. The platform is based upon the dual-socket 8-core Nehalem-EX, not 4-Core Nehalem-EP! When "Gainestown", a workstation/server platform based on quad-core Nehalem-EP processors appeared, we thought that Intel will repeat its high-level hardcore gaming platforms such as V8 and the Skulltrail based upon Gainestown.
But, Intel had something else in mind. In our discussions with Intel's execs and gurus on the both desktop and commercial side, we learned of yet another possible Skulltrail successor. Sean Malone's statement "Desktop is not Dead" is more than just words, with a true V16 in the works.
Those octal-core 24 MB L3 cache Nehalem-EX "Beckton" processors won't be just powering those gigantic enterprise servers with 1 TB RAM per box. Francois [Piednoel, Intel's Snr. Performance Engineer - Ed.] was talking about yet another possible Skulltrail successor - a dual-CPU 16-core, 32-thread machine is what we mean.
A humongous 48 MB L3 cache fed by eight channels of micro-buffered DDR3 memory, up to 256 GB of it even on a desktop? Many OS and apps code paths would now nicely fit in that huge cache, but high speed memory would still be useful for streaming and HPC apps. Every Nehalem-EX Beckton processor has a quad-memory controller, e.g. 256-bit interface. With DDR3-1333, you will get 85.3 GB/s. But with DDR3-1600 you would get 102.4GB/s e.g. CPUs would have more than 100GB/s of system bandwidth for the first time in history!
As a bonus, you would still be inside JEDEC specifications, thus OEMs could qualify the parts with no problems. If micro-buffered controllers improve enough to hold up the 1333 and 1600 clock, seeing 100GB/s in Sandra 2009-2010 could be just a matter of time.
Today, the top desktop gaming machine you can get is still Skulltrail with eight cores total, not more than 16GB of hot and slow FB-DIMM memory and either ATI Radeon 4870X2 in Crossfire-X or nVidia GeForce GTX295 in QuadSLI mode. With Skulltrail 2, count 16 cores, 256GB of DDR3 and go with DirectX 11 hardware from ATI, nVidia or even Intel Larrabee graphics cards.
We weren't told of an exact timeline for introduction, but don't be too surprised if Skulltrail 2 or Intel "V16" ala Bugatti Veyron appears during IDF Fall 2009 in San Francisco, this coming September. All in all, Intel is planning one cool platform.

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...ltrail-2-is-based-upon-8-core-nehalem-ex.aspx