Though Intel has been delayed with the 45nm quadcores it's convinced to be able to release a new series of processors, Nehalem, by the end of this year. The desktop version of this, the Bloomfield, will feature four cores with a shared cache memory of 8 MB. Bloomfield will also have a triple-channel DDR3 memory controller, which should significantly increase the bandwidth between the memory and the processor.

Detailed information on the Nehalem processor has been released during the Intel Developer Forum earlier this year, but there was nothing known yet about the motherboards and chipsets for this processor. According to Expreview, the first Nehalem chipset will be called the X58, and as the name suggest, will be aimed at the high-end market. Since the memory controller is integrated in the processor with this new generation, the chipset can be made much more efficient and smaller than the current X38/X48 chipsets.

The X58 chipset has 32 PCI-Express 2.0 lanes, which can be spread in two times 16x of four 8x lanes. It's almost certain that Crossfire support will remain existant. The X58 will be linked to the current ICH10/R southbridge, meaning there won't be any new features in this area. Earlier on, a motherboard picture leaked, of which Expreview thinks might be an X58.