In short, the number of threads is the number of simultaneous tasks each core of the CPU can process.

Is this a new thing with the i7? Is there a 16 thread ? Is one thread one instances?

I thought Number of Threads had more to do with Intel's Hyper-Threading technology. AMD has something similar. PCI express has 16 "lanes" for video processing. This apparently increases bandwidth that the GPU can process. It has nothing to do with your CPU power however.

Right. 7 lanes or threads x number of cores etc. This indeed has been going on for quite a few generations of CPU's. The main thing that improves over time other than numbers of cores and lanes is the implementation of that same and the on die cache/efficiency of all of the above.

There is no i6 to my knowledge, but there is an i5 and an i3. To be honest, I haven't really kept on on the latest specifications and future data sheets. Who knows what will show up next!

The i7 has 4 physical cores, and each one of the cores has two logical threads.

The result is that your computer can see 8 cores. But only four are real cores.

Is the same technology knowed as hyperthreading, used on some pentium's 4. Well, maybe changed a bit, but is the same concept.

Updated.

The newer i7-980X has 6 cores.

[[url=http://[/URL]="http://en.wikipedia…"]Hyper-threading - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/]="http://en.wikipedia…"]Hyper-threading - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/]