Westmere's feature improvements from Nehalem, as reported, include: • Native six-core (
Gulftown) and ten-core (
Westmere-EX) processors. •
AES-NI instruction set support: • Out of the total seven new instructions, six implement the AES algorithm specifically, the remaining PCLMULQDQ instruction (see
CLMUL instruction set) accelerates carry-less multiplication for use in
cryptography and
data compression. • Integrated graphics, fabricated on a separate
die using
45 nm process, and added onto the processor
package, beside the CPU die, (for dual core
Arrandale and
Clarkdale only). • Improved
virtualization latency and support for VMX Unrestricted mode, allowing 16-bit guests to run in real mode and
big real mode. • Support for "Huge Pages" of 1 GB in size. ==CPU variants==