Intel officially unveils details on upcoming Arrandale platform

It looks like we have every right to be disappointed...

Today Intel has officially revealed details on its new mobile platform – Arrandale. Unfortunately it turns up that all the rumours we have previously heard were only partially true and were far too optimistic.

First of all the release date. We have all kept our fingers crossed for early Q1 release, most likely January 2010. Unfortunately all Intel has revealed is H1 2010 for first few models, which probably means March or later. Here comes another issue. Intel plans to release much fewer models than we expected.

Models that will reach the market as first will be Ultra Low Voltage series. All of these are relatively underpowered and intended for ultra-portable notebooks, typically of 11-12 inch screen diameter. The three models will include 1.06 Ghz Core i5-520UM, 1.06 GHz Core i7-620UM and 1.2GHz Core i7-640UM priced $241, $278, and $305 per unit respectively. The ULV series will be followed by low to mid-range mainstream processors:  Core i3 2.26GHz 350M, and 2.13GHz 330M as well as two member of Core i5 family: 2.26 GHz 430M and 2.4GHz 520M. This time however no pricing has been revealed. Most of Arrandale models (except Core i3) will feature the Turbo Boost technology.

It is very disappointing though not to see any high-end mainstream performers, like the rumoured 2.53 GHz Core i7-620M or even higher clocked models.  Intel’s new 32nm manufacturing process has almost become a legend and so boosted our expectations to a really high level. That is simply because the 4-core Clarksfield series made in 45nm and consuming at least 45W of power is simply too heavy for most users. Intel also plans to release few more models in Q3 2010 and even though they are likely to be faster, the release is simply too late.

After all, it looks that with disappointment in Intel with both Arandale platform and USB 3.0 chipsets (delayed until late 2010) as well as slow release of new PC 5000-series graphics chips from ATi (notebook equivalent usually come 3-4 months later) due to problems with TSMC 40nm manufacturing process yields, it is not worth the wait with upgrading our laptops to Windows 7.  If Intel will continue making mistakes like this (it also has to pay 1.25 BILLION dollars to AMD for anti-competition practises), together with innovation from AMD such us the new Fusion concept, it may lose its position of semiconductor leader sooner than it dreamed in its darkest nightmares.