I agree the Nehalem architecture was more focused on HPC and server market than Desktops but do you think that a Nehalem chip can double the performance of the last best by Intel..!!
Very possible. First thing supporting that was the original Xeons weren't too competitive and AMD was looking rather good in HPC and server space.
What's making it amazing is that all the advantages AMD had will not only disappear(HTT/IMC) but will even get behind what's on Nehalem. Add a superior interconnect and more memory bandwidth to an amazing core and you have Nehalem.
I want to know about Nehalem-EX. That's the chip I want to see unleashed in some 2S and 4S goodness.
Unlikely the behemoth chip is going anywhere but 4+ socket systems. The die size of the 8 core, 2-way SMT, integrated 4 channel FB-DIMM memory controller, 4 QPI link, 24MB L3 beast is gonna lie at least 630mm2.