Xeon 45nm Frequencies Unveiled
Dailytech could put its hands on the document indicating specifications of the future Xeon which will be engraved at 45nm:
Those new Xeon will feature larger cache L2 (from 4MB to 6MB for each pair of Cores) while Core frequency will not really evolve, toping at 3.16GH for Quad Core CPU and 3.33GHz for Dual Core CPU.
If the boost in frequency is limited, the real performance gain should be substantial as those Xeon will be based on Penryn architecture which is claimed to be 25% faster than the current revision, especially for multimedia applications.
In addition, the low number of Dual Core Xeon models indicates that Intel will most likely push OEM and its partners including Apple to use Quad Core Xeon models. So, we might expect Apple to move its Mac Pro offer to 8-Cores only models. The new Mac Pro models will then be an entry level power
