Looking back to when Intel's Core 2 architecture was still a blip on a roadmap, enthusiasts were cautiously optimistic over the promised performance gains. And rightfully so, considering the burn that the chip maker's hot running Penryn put on end users. But as we now know, it turns out Intel was every bit justified in hyping its new architecture, putting a (perhaps temporary) end to AMD's Cinderella story.

And so here we are again eagerly anticipating Intel's next architecture, only this time we're slightly less apprehensive regarding the company's ability to deliver now that Netburst has been nixed. Unfortunately, the chips formerly known as Nehalem are still under lock and key, but that hasn't stopped details on the Core i7 lineup from making its way to the web. According to reports, three processors are slated for a November 2008 release:

• Core i7 920 (mainstream) - 2.66GHz
• Core i7 940 (performance) - 2.93GHz
• Core i7 965 (extreme) - 3.20GHz

Differences in clockspeeds aside, all three models will be quad-core parts built on a 45nm manufacturing process with 256KB of L2 cache per core and 8MB of shared L3 cache. Each one also comes with a 130W TDP rating, so don't be surprised if they run hot, assuming the rumored specs hold true.

Pricing on the 920, 940, and 965 in thousand unit quantities looks to be $284, $562,and $999 respectively.

Image Credit: Intel