Below is the photo of an Intel desktop Core i3 CPU, also known as Clakdale, we talked about yesterday.
On the same die, several components are packed together, the dual core CPU engraved at 32 nm, the smallest square on the photo; while the other one is the graphical unit. On will also find on the die the memory controller, the PCI-Express lines... the latest parts remained engraved at 45 nm.
This new design offers several advantages. The first one, already used by the marketing team from Intel, is to simplify significantly the design of motherboards and reduce the production cost. The second advantages is only suspected and some rumors indicate that it would be design to slow down competition, and especially NVIDIA. Indeed, the Northbridge is integrated in the CPU, so NVIDIA will not be able to offer an alternative Northbridge solution.
