Intel is about to launch its new consumer processors based on the 45nm Nehalem architecture that we already saw in the new enterprise-class CPUs Xeon 5500 available since March.
This new architecture includes two critical extensions to improve the performance of virtualization platforms: VT-x (nested page tables) and VT-d (I/O virtualization).
The latter may be especially important to grant superior performance in a VDI environment powered by client hypervisors, but Intel is not offering VT-d on all its new CPUs.
The new Nehalem-based processors will be dubbed Core i3, i5 and i7 in place of the well known brand name Core 2. The first ones, that may arrive as soon as early September, will feature the VT-x but not VT-d extension.
Yesterday HKEPC reported that the Core i5 750 and the the entire Core i3 product line (expected for Q1 2010) will not include VT-d:
