Intel Will Spit Up Fifteen (15) More Montevina CPUs in May

Intel is decided to continue the launch frenzy it started in the first day of this year's Consumer Electronics Show. According to miscellaneous sources at the notebooks builders, the chip manufacturer is alleged to release, in early May, the second batch of 45-nanometer CPUs for the upcoming Montevina platform. It is alleged that eight of the 15 CPUs will feature a smaller package size and will aim at the small form factor market.

Seven of the newly-released CPUs will have an average package size of 35 square millimeters for the notebook sector. The largest Thermal Design Power (TDP) will range around 45W, while the lower value will reach 25W. The most powerful CPU in the series is the Core 2 Extreme QX9300, to come with 12MB L2 cache (45W TDP). The core frequency for it has not been decided as of the moment of writing this.

The next in the series are Core 2 Extreme X9100 with a core frequency of 3.06GHz, 6MB L2 cache (44W TDP), Core 2 Duo T9600 at 2.8GHz, with 6MB of L2 cache (35W TDP), T9400 (2.53GHz, 6MB of L2 and 35W TDP), P9500 (2.53GHz, 6MBof L2 and 25W), P8600 (2.4GHz, 3MB of L2 and 25W TDP). Last and least, the P8400 model will feature a 2.26GHz speed clock, 3MB of L2 cache and a thermal envelope of only 25W.

Some other eight CPUs will feature a smaller, 22 square millimeters package size. They will feature much smaller thermal fingerprints than the 35-mm CPUs: the highest TDP in the series will be of 25W, while the lowest will only score 5.5W. Except for the latter, each CPU will feature the 1066MHz FSB speed.

The top model in the 22-millimeter package is the SP9400 with a core frequency of 2.4GHz and 6MB of L2 cache. The next in the line are SL9400 (1.86GHz and 6MB of L2), SL9300 (1.6GHz, 6MBof L2), SU9400 (1.4GHz, 3MB of L2), SU9300 (1.2GHz, 3MB of L2), and Celeron 723 (1.2GHz, 1MB of L2). The last in the line is the U3300 CPU at 1.2GHz, with 3MB of L2 and 5.5W TDP. It is the only CPU in the series to support FSB speeds up to 800MHz.

Rumors of launching a new set of 45-nanometer CPUs shortly after the Santa Rosa Refresh (launched on January the 6th) made notebook manufacturers reluctant to the former chips. Intel refused to comment upon the rumors in order to avoid overstock during the platform transition.