Nehalem has an integrated memory controller and graphics processors. It’s a benchmark in PC world of CPUs. AMD had integrated memory controllers for quite some time now and it had benefited them quite a lot. Therefore the Intel decided to adopt this technique in his generation next CPU.

The chipset memory controller in the Front Side is not required any more as everything is handled inside the CPU itself. Nehalem has between 1 and 6 memory channels which is something new as they were not there in the previous models of its CPUs. It’s a huge change.

The integrated graphics core is a big threat for ATI and nVidia. It’s won’t affect much to the mid- to high-end range graphics cards, but is a real threat for the low end or integrated graphics cores on the motherboard. Usually these have Intel chipsets as aren’t many mobile chipsets are created for the Intel platform.

Nehalem needs to cut down the hardware on the motherboard. It’s no longer required as big a chipset as there’s no need to worry about the memory controller or handling the graphics. The motherboard will do fine even with just a chipset to handle hard drives and I/O ports, and the CPU, and that will pretty much take care of everything.

The lower side of the integrated memory controller is that motherboard manufacturers don’t have any input on it. In early days, the memory controller was made in the chipset, so all motherboard manufactures were required to do to support various memories was a different chipset. But not nowadays. Intel decides to put the memory controller in. Intel is the only one to adapt a memory generation, so one can expect it to be little costlier as CPUs with some cutting edge memory. Which indeed a real threat for the mid- to low-end CPUs.