Why the codename?
You wouldn't expect a board like this to come cheap and while Rampone insisted it's priced at under $300, you're looking at around £230 to buy it in the UK. So while the entry level Core i7 is relatively affordable at $284, the overall platform cost is considerably higher.
We asked Rampone why Intel puts so much effort into cultivating the enthusiast market."The impact of not being performance leaders was huge at Intel - we're much better leaders than followers," he said. "Also, there's more and more demand for performance, but at the same time it's also a very power-efficient architecture."
Intel has its own desktop board division and we wondered what unique qualities Rampone thinks it offers. "High confidence; time to market and quality are important," he said. "Customers tend to see far lower cost of ownership and the terms and conditions for warranties and returns are good."
To conclude we asked why Intel chose the codename Smackover and for some idea about what we can expect next from it. "We will see Nehalem waterfall down next year and see graphics in the CPU in 2010," said Rampone.
And the codename? "Our legal guys wouldn't let us call it ‘Butt-kicker'," he revealed. Fair enough.
Correction: On page 2 we quoted Rampone as saying: "...there are overclocking tools that allow you to go over 5GHz - air cooled." This should have read: "3.5GHz - air cooled and 5GHz - liquid cooled."
