Intel has started a massive production of 32nm Westmere chips

Arrandale appears to be closer than we thought

 This week Intel has announced that it has started production of its new 32nm Arrandale processors (as well as desktop Clarkdale) based on the latest Westmere architecture. This happened slightly quicker than it was expected and it is therefore possible we will see first Arrandale processors hitting the market just on time before Christmas. Considering the fact that Intel is way ahead of the competition, it is also possible that they will wait to steal the show at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which will take place in Las Vegas from the 7^th to the 10^th January 2010. This would make us wait a little longer; nevertheless Intel is on track to release world’s first 32nm commercial CPUs within the next few months.

Arrandale is a revolutionary move from Intel as a 45nm IGP, called GMA HD, will be packaged on the same socket as the CPU. It will also include an on-board memory controller. Apart from decreasing the manufacturing process, Intel has also managed to reduce the gate pitch (a measure of transistor separation) by 30%, which allowed them to squeeze even more transistors in the same area as well as to save power and reduce the costs.

All Arrandale processors will feature Turbo Boost and similarly to their predecessors will come in three power variants. Turbo Boost is a feature introduced by Intel to overclock some (one for Arrandale) of the cores when others are not required. This is particularly important with gaming as most games take very little advantage from multiple cores.

Surprisingly enough, for the first time ever ULV models will break the 2GHz barrier:

Standard (35W*)                   Normal                           Turbo         

Core i7 620M                             2.66GHz                        3.33GHz

Core i5 540M                             2.53GHz                        3.06GHz

Core i5 520M                             2.4GHz                           2.93GHZ                                                                                                                                                         

Low Voltage (25W*)

Core i7 640LM                            2.13GHz                       2.93GHz

Core i7 620LM                            2GHz                             2.8GHz

Ultra Low Voltage (18W*)

Core i7 640UM                          1.2GHz                          2.26GHz

Core i7 620UM                          1.06GHz                       2.13GHz

*all these values represent CPU + IGP + memory controller TDP making Arrandale (32nm) far more energy efficient than previous generation of CPUs (45nm)

Furthermore, Microsoft has announced that its upcoming Windows 7 will allow users to save up to 25% energy when paired up with Intel Arrandale when compared to previous operating systems. This indicates we should see a little revolution in terms of battery life in the nearest future.