Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC; SEHK: 4335; Euronext: INCO) is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. The company is the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation (though a common misconception is that "Intel" is from the word intelligence) and is based in Santa Clara, California, USA. Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network interface controllers and integrated circuits, flash memory, graphic chips, embedded processors, and other devices related to communications and computing. Founded by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, and widely associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove, Intel combines advanced chip design capability with a leading-edge manufacturing capability. Originally known primarily to engineers and technologists, Intel's "Intel Inside" advertising campaign of the 1990s made it and its Pentium processor household names.

Intel was an early developer of SRAM and DRAM memory chips, and this represented the majority of its business until the early 1980s. While Intel created the first commercial microprocessor chip in 1971, it was not until the success of the personal computer (PC) that this became their primary business. During the 1990s, Intel invested heavily in new microprocessor designs fostering the rapid growth of the PC industry. During this period Intel became the dominant supplier of microprocessors for PCs, and was known for aggressive and sometimes controversial tactics in defense of its market position, particularly against AMD, as well as a struggle with Microsoft for control over the direction of the PC industry. The 2009 rankings of the world's 100 most powerful brands published by Millward Brown Optimor showed the company's brand value rising 4 places – from number 27 to number 23.

Processor Intel Core i7

Intel Core i7 is Intel's brand name for several families of desktop and laptop 64-bit x86-64 processors using the Intel Nehalem microarchitecture.

It is a successor to the Intel Core 2 brand. The Core i7 identifier was first applied to the initial family of processors codenamed Bloomfield introduced in 2008. In 2009 the name was applied to Lynnfield and Clarksfield models. Prior to 2010, all models were quad-core processors. In 2010, the name was applied to dual-core Arrandale models, and the Gulftown Core i7-980X Extreme processor which has six hyperthreaded cores.

Intel representatives state that the moniker Core i7 is meant to help consumers decide which processor to purchase as the newer Nehalem-based products are released in the future.[8] The name continues the use of the Intel Core brand. Core i7, first assembled in Costa Rica, was officially launched on November 17, 2008[11] and is manufactured in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon, though the Oregon (PTD, Fab D1D) plant has already moved to the next generation 32 nm process.

Processor Cores

The initial Core i7 processors released were codenamed Bloomfield, branded as Core i7-9xx along with their Xeon 3500-series counterparts. As of 2009, they are Intel's high-end Desktop processors, sharing the Socket 1366 platform with the single and dual-processor server processors.

Lynnfield is the second processor sold under the Core i7 brand, while at the same time being sold as Core i5. Unlike Bloomfield, it does not have a QPI interface but directly connects to a southbridge using a 2.5 GT/s Direct Media Interface and to other devices using PCI Express links in its Socket 1156. Core i7 processors based on Lynnfield have Hyper-Threading, which is disabled in Lynnfield-based Core i5 processors.

Clarksfield is the mobile version of Lynnfield and available under the Core i7 Mobile brand, as part of the Calpella platform. It was released at the Intel Developer Forum on September 23, 2009.

The second mobile Core i7 processor family will be Arrandale, sold as the Core i7-6xx processors and featuring an integrated graphics processing unit but only two processor cores, half of Clarksfield. Clarkdale, the desktop version of Arrandale, will not be sold as Core i7, but only as Core i3 and Core i5. All support Intels Hyper Threading (HT).

Gulftown is the Extreme Edition version of the Core i7, featuring 6 cores, 32nm process, Hyper-Threading (for a total of 12 logical threads), 12 MB of cache, Turbo Boost and Intel QuickPath connection bus

ref : wikipedia