Word of a 3.2GHz Nehalem 'Extreme' processor is beginning to peak interest around the web thanks to Intel's latest roadmap, this top end model set to be launched along with two other quad-core 'Bloomfield' parts in Q4 of this year which run at 2.93 and 2.66GHz.

It's been discovered that the Extreme offering will connect directly to 1333MHz DDR3 memory and sport 8MB of L2 cache. Shifting away from the aging FSB, Intel's new QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) bus will allow for the delivery of 6.4 billion transactions per second using the Extreme Edition model, whilst the other two connect directly to 1066MHz DDR3 and crunch 4.8 billion.

Nehalem chips will use Intel's new QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) bus. In the case of the Extreme CPU, the bus is tuned to deliver 6.4bn transactions per second (GT/s), while the mainstream desktop chips' QPI bus runs to 4.8GT/s, it's claimed.

All three CPUs clip into LGA1366 sockets. They contain 8MB of L3 cache shared across all four cores - each core has its own complement of L1 and L2 cache; 256KB of the latter - and support all the usual Intel extension technologies except TXT (Trusted eXecution Technology). They're all said to have a power and thermal envelope of 130W.