Intel's biannual developers' conference in San Francisco next week is a chance for hardware and software developers to get briefings about upcoming technologies, marketing plans, and collaborate with colleagues.

But for the rest of the world, it's a chance to hear more about "Penryn," Intel's next-generation microprocessor.

As always, PC Magazine will be there. What are looking forward to? Penryn, obviously, but also briefings on the next-generation platforms after Penryn, and an audience with the co-founder of Intel, Dr. Gordon Moore.

While Intel's branding strategy isn't clear, Penryn will be a 45-nm shrink of the latest Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors. Like the naming structure, we expect the line between "mobile" processors and "desktop" processors to become blurred in 2008, with more desktop PCs using the same CPUs as larger, faster notebooks.

We've seen this trend in all-in-one desktops such as the Apple iMac and Sony VAIOs. Penryn should be the debut of Intel's 45-nanometer process, with improvements to multimedia instructions (SSE4) and a faster front side bus (1,333MHz with support for DDR3 memory). The 45-nm process allows Intel to make smaller, cooler, more energy-efficient chips, with the benefit of more cores from a 300-mm processor wafer.

In addition to the Penryn processor, we're also looking forward to seeing and hearing about the "Nehalem" processor. Nehalem refers to the successor to the Pentium 4 processor (the line which ends with the Pentium D processor), but that product was never released. Instead, "Nehalem" has been reused to refer to the next generation, 45-nanometer processor built on the Intel Core architecture. Nehalem is rumored to support up to eight cores, up from the four in the Core 2 Quad "Conroe" processor and the initial Penryn processor.

Penryn will also find its way on to laptops come the first quarter of 2008. It's the same 45nm process, with greater instructions per clock cycle. The difference lies in a lower thermal design, translating into a more energy efficient processor.

Mobile Penryn processors will have support for the 1,066-MHz front side bus, up to 6 Mbytes of L2 cache, and clock speeds surpassing the 3-GHz barrier. IDF sessions will delve deeper into the upcoming "Montevina" mobile platform, which will supplant the current "Santa Rosa" platform with a brand new chipset, support for the Penryn processors, and a new wireless platform that will feature Intel's push for WiMax interoperability.

We expect that WiMax will be covered in one of Intel's many technology sessions, including one called "Next-Generation Wireless Solutions," focusing on the chipset featuring both WiMax and WiFi. Transmitting data over long distances via a variety of methods is just one of the many benefits of WiMax, the most compelling of which is transmitting voice data. WiMax will become a reality by 2008.

IDF will also take a deeper look into the Centrino Pro platform, a business brand that launched back in April 2007. The Centrino Pro brand extends Intel's vPro processor technology into laptops, and gives IT managers the ability to perform Wake-On-LAN technologies wirelessly. IDF will also focus on technology trends, such as ultra mobile devices, Web-enabled consumer electronics, and low-cost PCs geared toward developing countries. We'll try to dig up the latest info on Intel's OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) initiative, as well as the latest advancements on its UMPC platform.

Finally, Dr. Gordon Moore, acknowledged as one of the forefathers of the modern computer industry, will be talking about "the tremendous advances the entire computer industry has made over the decades." While this no doubt will partly be a chance for Moore to tell a few war stories, it should also be an opportunity for him to reflect on the role computers have played in people's lives over the past 40 years. As a pioneer of the integrated circuit and the CPU since its invention, Moore is an esteemed figure in the technology industry. Heck, he's got Moore's Law named after him.

Combined with what the hardware and software developers are thinking on a day to day basis, we think it's going to be an interesting week in San Francisco. Look for our blogs at Gearlog, and news stories and end-of-day wrapups at

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