14 DAY TRIAL // One of the most highly anticipated product releases this year is Intel’s next-generation desktop platform, codenamed Nehalem, which is expected sometime in mid November in the form of Core i7 processors and X58-enabled motherboards.
However, the company is still far from introducing its Nehalem architecture to notebooks. The rumored mobile chip is expected to arrive sometime next year, although there aren’t any specific dates available at this time.
Now, according to recent details on IDG’s InfoWorld, the Santa Clara, California-based leading chip maker is planning to produce the mobile version of Nehalem, codenamed Clarksfield in the second half of 2009. Unfortunately, the company has not yet mentioned when the new chips will be made available for retail. However, there’s a good chance that these chips will debut on the market sometime in late 2009.
Clarksfield will be manufactured using a 45nm production technology, the same used in Intel’s current processor lineup. The chip itself will be designed to power the next-generation Centrino platform from Intel, which means we might even see some new Intel-powered portable computer systems in time for next-year’ winter holidays.
Currently there are no details regarding the performance potential of Intel’s upcoming mobile chip, but considering the recently leaked reviews for the yet-to-be released Core i7 processors, we might see the current Centrino 2-enabled notebooks loosing the battle for high-performance.
One of the significant differences between Intel’s current CPU architecture and that of the upcoming Core i7 processors is that the Nehalem-based CPUs boast an integrated memory controller hub that connects the memory to the processor. This feature is already available on processors from Intel’s Arch rival, AMD, and is said to allow a much faster access to data, when compared to the company’s current chips. One other enhancement that will be made available through Intel’s next-generation mobile chips is advanced power-management .