Intel talks openly about next-generation mobile CPUs. Core i7 on the move.

Mobile Nehalem

In an expected move, Intel's David Perlmutter announced that the Nehalem chip architecture will be migrated to notebooks. Known by the codename Clarksfield, the quad-core CPU, complete with Hyperthreading and up to 8MB of L3 cache, will fully leverage Intel's Turbo Boost feature, clocking in from a default 2.0GHz on the range-topping Core i7 920XM chip up to 3.2GHz in single-core mode - or a nine-step jump from the base frequency.

Chips will clock up eight steps (1.06GHz) in dual-core mode and two steps (266MHz) in full-blown quad-core operation. The Core i7 mobile CPUs will, we can confirm, be based on the desktop Lynnfield core and rated with a 55W TDP, which, really, is about as high as one can go in a mobile form factor.

The increase in pure frequency is impressive given the thermal considerations for notebooks, but we rather imagine that Clarksfield will be aimed at the workstation market where 4kg-plus notebooks are commonplace.

Arrandale - Westmere on the move

Moving forward, the 32nm Westmere architecture will be scaled down from the desktop Clarkdale CPU - dual-core, quad-threaded - to the Arrandale core. The notebook-oriented chip will also use integrated graphics, and if our preview of the desktop Clarkdale's performance is anything to go by, the IGP should be half-decent.

By integrating the graphics into the CPU's package, minimising the real estate needed for the core-logic, we hope to see a greater number of thinner and lighter notebooks hit the market in 2010.

Pragmatically, what this means is that the higher-end mobile space in 2009/2010 will be spanned by both 45nm quad-core and 32nm dual-core achitectures, run on the Calpella platform.

Medfield

Speaking briefly on the next-next-generation Atom platform, 32nm Medfield, Intel was at pains to delineate that idle and load power consumption will be many-magnitudes lower than the upcoming Moorestown platform.

Medfield chips and core logic are slated to be introduced into smartphones (finally) and we should see the first iterations in 2011. We reckon that the Medfield platform will finally reduce the power-draw enough for Intel to be technically competitive with industry leader ARM, thereby being able to genuinely competing for a larger slice of the smartphone pie. However, as usual, announcements and shipping products are two very, very different things, and is 2011 too late?

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