Intel isn't due to begin shipping processors produced using its 45nm process until 2008, but it's already naming the chips that will be made using the technology.

According to a list of upcoming Intel CPUs for 2006 and 2007 published (http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20051203/index.html) by Tom's Hardware Guide, the ballooning transistor budget made possible by the 45nm process will be used to drive up L2 cache sizes.

'Wolfdale' and 'Ridgefield', for example, two dual-core, single-die desktop chips due 2008, will have 3MB and 6MB of cache apiece.

These should appear alongside 'Perryville' and 'Penryn', respectively single-core and dual-core mobile parts, the former with 2MB of cache, according to the report, the latter with 3MB and 6MB of L2.

On the server side, we have 'Hapertown', an eight-core Xeon with 12MB of cache shared between the cores. It doesn't look like we're going to see a desktop CPU with eight cores until 2008/2009, with the debut of 'Yorkfield', also sporting 12MB of cache.

The same timeframe will see the debut of the quad-core 'Bloomfield', but how much cache it will contain isn't known. The same question hangs over the 'Silverthorne' mobile processor, for which we don't even have a core-count yet. ®

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