Deeper Buffers, New Cache Structure:
Something else coming with Intel's Core i7 processors is a new cache structure. Core i7 processors feature L1, L2, and shared L3 caches, as opposed to Core 2 processors that have only L1 and L2 cache. There is a 64K L1 cache (32K Instruction, 32K Data) per core, 1MB of total L2 cache (256K per core), and a shared 8MB of L3 cache. We should note, however, that the L3 cache size may vary in future version of the CPU.

Although we don't have the specific details, Intel has also 

stated that Core i7 processors have "deeper buffers" than their 

Penryn-based counterparts, but the stages in the pipeline are largely unchanged.

Hyper-Threading Returns:
Intel is also bringing back Hyper-Threading with the new

Core i7 processors. Hyper-Threading was first introduced

in the Pentium 4 days and allows the Core i7's four cores to

be recognized as eight virtual cores by the system's OS. 

While Hyper-Threading 1.0 was criticized for being energy

inefficient, Intel claims this latest iteration is much more power

friendly and performance should be better too.